Louvre blocks sale of record-breaking Chardin: will try to acquire it

The Louvre is attempting to grab a masterpiece by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (Paris, 1699 - 1779): it is The Basket of Woodland Strawberries, an important and rare still life by the great French artist that went up for auction on March 23 at Artcurial in Paris with an estimate of 12-15 million euros, and was sold for the remarkable sum of 24.4 million euros. A sum that broke several records: a world record for Chardin in an auction, a world record for an Old French painting sold at auction, and a record for a painting sold by Artcurial. Matthieu Fournier, Artcurial’s director of Old Masters, had said that “beyond the personal and intimate emotion aroused by this treasure, it is a source of great pride to have offered Artcurial the opportunity to sell the first painting in its history for more than 24 million euros on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the first French auction house.”

It was New York dealer Adam Williams who made the decisive bid, but the sale is now blocked: in fact, the Louvre’s director, Laurence des Cars, let the French newspaper Le Figaro know that she has asked the state to declare it a “national treasure,” which would give the Parisian museum the opportunity to exercise its right of first refusal to attempt the purchase.

The operation would be possible because Artcurial would have moved too late to apply for the export certificate needed to get the work out of the French borders: in fact, it seems that the authorization was not granted (in any case, potential buyers know that in the case of such works eventualities such as these can occur in France: in the conditions of sale it is specified that the state could take action to notify the work).

The state commission that will decide what to do about the Basket of Wild Strawberries will meet in mid-April. It is uncertain whether the transaction will ultimately go through: the Louvre’s budget has indeed been greatly affected by the lack of tourist inflows during the pandemic, and the museum already owns an important corpus of 41 works by Chardin, which is why an expenditure of several million euros for the 42nd work may not be deemed appropriate.

Image: Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, The Basket of Strawberries (oil on canvas, 38 x 46 cm)

Louvre blocks sale of record-breaking Chardin: will try to acquire it

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