The Louvre Museum

Saint Thomas
Georges de La Tour

1634 – 1638
Oil on canvas, 46 × 60 cm

Contribution by the Kraemer Family to the national subscription in favor of the purchase of Georges de La Tour’s painting, which was thus able to enter the national collections.The painting was discovered by Madeleine Pré in 1950 at the Château de Gallerande in the Sarthe. As reported by Jacques Thuillier, the owner “threatened to set the dogs on the first historian who rang her gate. If there was ever a sequestered painting, this was it” (Thuillier, in Le Figaro, March 22, 1988).
The saint is identified by the lance he holds, depicted in foreshortening.
It is the lance of his martyrdom according to The Golden Legend by Jacques de Voragine: the saint dies pierced by lance blows given by the pagan priests of the king of the Indies, Gondolforus.

The Louvre Museum

Tabatière of duc de Choiseul

Donation for the acquisition of the masterpiece of miniature art:
the precious and spectacular Tabatière of duc de Choiseul,
created between 1770 and 1771.

Château de Versailles

Louis XVI Period Nightstand, Stamped by Jean-Henri Riesener

Donation for the return of a Louis XVI period mahogany nightstand stamped by Jean-Henri Riesener to the bedroom of Queen Marie-Antoinette in her private apartments at the Château de Versailles.