The Louvre wanted it and soon it should be able to buy it. Le Panier de fraises des bois, by Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779), could soon be hanging on the walls of the Paris museum, which on Tuesday, November 7, launched a public subscription under the slogan "Tous mécènes!" ("All patrons!") to secure the necessary funding.

With already 41 works, the Louvre possesses the world's largest collection of still lifes by Chardin. But it lacks this icon from his late period, painted in 1761 when the artist was at the peak of his career, the only one in which this motif of bright red wild strawberries appears. "It's the perfect painting of exceptional execution," enthused Laurence des Cars, director of the Louvre, recalling the fascination this painting held for artists of the 19^th century. "Manet saw this painting, and then the strawberry motif appeared in his work and then in Renoir's," she explained in detail.

The work also caught the eye of the Goncourt brothers, who wrote in 1863: "Therein lies the miracle of the things Chardin paints: Modeled in the mass and surround of their contours, drawn with their light, made as it were of the soul of their color, they seem to detach themselves from the canvas and come to life, by I know not what marvelous optical operation between the canvas and the spectator in space."

Since the 19^th century, this still life painting has belonged to the descendants of Eudoxe Marcille (1814-1890), a great collector with a passion for French painting. For decades now, the Louvre has held ambitions to purchase it. When the still life appeared in March 2022 at the French auction house Artcurial, the Paris museum was taken by surprise. Le Panier de fraises des bois sold for €24.3 million to a bidder on behalf of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The Louvre could not pre-empt the purchase. Its acquisition budget is capped at €13 million a year. The French Ministry of Culture suspended the sale and blocked its export by granting it the "national treasure" label. The State then had 30 months to raise the sum.

Des Cars then turned to the LVMH group, whose name comes to mind as soon as works are valued in the tens of millions. When she was president of the Musée d'Orsay, des Cars had already approached the group to purchase another "national treasure," La Partie de bateau (circa 1877-1878), by Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), worth a cool €43 million.

In the case of the Chardin, des Cars only asked Bernard Arnault's group for two-thirds of the sum required, in other words, €15 million. Did the Louvre wish to defuse criticism of the "national treasures" law, which allows a company to benefit from a corporate tax reduction equal to 90 % of its payments and high media coverage in relation to the sum actually disbursed?

You have 45% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.