A new Roubiliac enters the Louvre

10/4/26 - Acquisition - Paris, Musée du Louvre - If the first part of the three Manny Davidson sales had been crowned with considerable success in the autumn (see the news item of 3/11/25), one of the lots we reproduced in our article was — rather curiously — passed over, despite an estimate that was by no means unreasonable! It was therefore, in all probability within that estimate range, set at €60,000 to €80,000, that the Department of Sculptures at the Musée du Louvre was immediately able to seize such a fine opportunity to enrich its foreign collections by negotiating at Sotheby’s a bust of Alexander Pope by Louis François Roubiliac, the most “French” of eighteenth-century British sculptors. Passed in commission on 12 February, it (ill. 1) is already recorded in the collections database and could, in the coming weeks, join the rooms housing a small but already significant collection of European sculpture, which is eager to grow and, above all, to be visible [1].

This acquisition is therefore good news in more ways than one, first because it signals renewed interest on the part of the great Paris museum in the art market. There was indeed every reason to fear that the institution, whose management had been weakened since the burglary of 19 October and whose acquisitions policy had been sharply criticised shortly afterwards by the Cour des comptes (see the article), might severely curb any costly purchase. The entry of this bust, followed by some fifteen lots preempted (see the news item of 15/12/25) during the Fontaine sale on 21 November (see the news item of 19/11/25) thus constitutes positive signals, in line with the appointment of Christophe Leribault to replace Laurence des Cars (see the news item of 25/2/26). We can…