Louvre to Return 258 Mistakenly Obtained Works to Fondation des Artistes
The Louvre in Paris will give back to the Fondation des Artistes 258 objects that mistakenly entered its collection as early as 1923 and as late as 2000. The items, all from the cabinet of curiosities belonging to German-born collector and socialite Adèle de Rothschild, were discovered to be in the Louvre’s possession during a joint inventory carried out between the museum and the Fondation des Artistes in 2019–20 at the latter organization’s behest. Laurence Maynier, director of the foundation, in a statement cast the return of the cabinet objects as “just.”
According to French daily Le Monde, which broke the news on May 28, Rothschild after a falling-out with her daughter, had bequeathed her private residence—the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild—and its contents to the French state so that it might establish a foundation to support living artists. The baroness stipulated that the cabinet of curiosities remain intact. Works were dispersed among Parisian institutions including the Musée de Cluny, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, as well as the Louvre.
Of the 258 objects discovered to have accidentally exited the cabinet and entered the Louvre, many are Islamic art pieces, while others are objets d’art. Per an agreement between the Louvre and the Fondation des Artistes, which is housed in the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, the museum will be allowed to display some thirty items from the cabinet for a period of five years; as well, it is set to receive 104 objects held by the foundation that were originally part of its own Rothschild cache. The Fondation des Artistes, for its part, will absorb some two hundred of the Rothschild items back into the cabinet, as much in accordance with Rothschild’s direction as possible. The cabinet will open to the public in September.
