Cimabue’s panel finally acquired for the Louvre

Honour to the regional daily press: it was Oise Hebdo that had the luxury of announcing the arrival in the French collections of the now famous panel (ill. 1) by Cimabue discovered during an inventory in the region (even though the news was already known to many). Ahead of the French Ministry of Culture, which only announced the news at midday yesterday in a simple press release, the newspaper naturally drew attention to the role played by the Senlis auctioneer (Dominique le Coënt) and the Paris expert (Éric Turquin), who decided to put the painting up for auction (see the news item of 23/9/19) at the Ordener Armoury in Senlis - a venue that is fortunately equipped with a defibrillator and can accommodate several hundred people - on Sunday 27 October 2019. What happened next is well known: fought over on the telephone but also in the room by several international buyers, who did not hesitate to bid gleefully in the millions of euros, the panel was sold for €19,500,000 hammer - or more than twenty-four million including costs - to a gallery owner acting on behalf of American collectors Alvaro Saieh and Ana Guzmán (see news item of 27/10/19). An emissary from the Musée du Louvre was present in the audience, but the bidding probably went too high for this unpublished Cimabue to be preempted.

2. Cenni di Pepo, called Cimabue (known from 1272 to 1302)
The Virgin and Child Enthroned Surrounded by Angels
Tempera and gold on panel - 25.7 x 20.5 cm
London, National Gallery
Photo: National Gallery

See the image in its page

3. Cenni di Pepo, called Cimabue (known from 1272 to 1302)
The Flagellation
Tempera and gold on panel - 25.2 x 20.3 cm
New York, The Frick Collection
Photo: The Frick Collection

See the image in its page

Confident in the next move, the Louvre had probably already foreseen what would happen next: the panel was classified as a National Treasure a few weeks later (see the news item of 23/12/19), as might have been…