Napoleonic looting of art (French:Spoliations napoléoniennes) consisted of the confiscation of artworks and precious objects carried out by French troops and officials in the conquered territories of theFrench Republic andEmpire, including theItalian Peninsula, Spain, Portugal, theLow Countries, andCentral Europe. The looting began around 1794 and continued throughNapoleon I's rule of France, until theCongress of Vienna in 1815 ordered the restitution of the works.[1]: 113
During theNapoleonic era, an unknown but immense quantity of art was acquired, destroyed, or lost through treaties, public auctions, and unsanctioned seizures. Coins and objects made of precious metals, such as theJewel of Vicenza and thebucentaur, the Venetian state barge, were melted down for easier sale and transport, to finance French military wages. In the confusion, many artworks and manuscripts were lost in transit or broken into pieces, which were often never reunited, as occurred with the marble columns of theAachen Cathedral.
French officials justified taking art and other objects of value as both aright of conquest and as an advancement of public education,encyclopedism, andEnlightenment ideals. These seizures redefined the right of conquest in Europe and caused a surge of interest in art and art conservation.
At the Congress of Vienna,Austria,Spain, the German states, and the United Kingdom ordered the restitution of all the removed artworks. Many were returned, but others remained in France, due to resistance from the French administration, the high costs of transport, or the risk of damage to fragile works. As not all of the artwork was returned, this campaign of French looting continues to affect European politics,museology, and national cultural identity today. Also the "finds" of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, such as the Rosetta Stone, were not concerned by the arrangement and remained in the British Museum.[2]
After theFrench Revolution, the new government had to decide whether or how to nationalise artworks from churches, the fleeing nobility of theancien régime, and the royal collections.[3] In some cases,French iconoclasts destroyed artworks, particularly those that represented royalty or feudalism.[4]: 25,32 Other works were put up for public auction to replenish the Republic's empty coffers and were bought and transported to other European collections.[4]: 30–31
With the intervention of abbotHenri Gregoire in 1794, the French revolutionary government moved to stop the vandalism and destruction of artworks by claiming them as a source of national heritage.[4]: 32 [5] All around France, works were placed in storage or for display in museums, like theLouvre, and enormous inventories of the confiscated works were attempted.[4]: 33 Regional French museums resisted attempts at centralised control of their collections, but the newly institutedFrench Directory created commissions to encourage compliance. In many cases, this saved works of medieval or Gothic art from destruction, often through the intervention of experts like architectAlexandre Lenoir, abbot Nicolas Bergeat, and artistLouis Joseph Watteau.[4]: 33–34
From the start of the 18th century, the French people had clamoured for more public exhibitions, creating a need for new artworks and their display.[6]: 677 And the increased collections needed new institutions to manage them. TheMusée des Monuments Français, whose collection would later be transferred to the Louvre, and theMuseum of Fine Arts of Lyon are two prominent examples of art museums. Science museums were also founded, including theConservatoire national des arts et métiers and theMuséum national d'histoire naturelle.[7]: 25
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The previously disorganised Louvre collection was cataloged and structured through the work of scholarsEnnio Quirino Visconti and Alexandre Lenoir.[4]: 100, 107 In November 1802,First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte appointedVivant Denon director of the Louvre, the museums ofVersailles, and the royal castle collections due to his successes in theEgyptian campaign.[4]: 107, 112 Denon, known as "Napoleon's eye",[8]: 33 continued to travel with French military expeditions to Italy, Germany, Austria, and Spain to select artworks for France.[9]: 183 He also improved the Louvre's layout and lighting to encourage holistic comparisons of the plundered artworks, reflecting new ideas in museology and countering the objections that the artworks lacked meaningful context in France.[1]: 133 Denon "deployed flattery and duplicity" to gain further acquisitions, even against Napoleon's wishes.[1]: 132 As a result of the Chaptal Decree in 1801, works of greater merit were selected for the Louvre, while less important works were distributed among new French provincial museums like those in Lyon orMarseille, and then to smaller museums like those inReims,Tours, orArles.[6]: 679 At the same time, some Italian fine arts academies were transformed into public museums like thePinacoteca di Brera in Milan.[10]
The influx of paintings also coincided with renewed interest in art restoration methods, under the influence of restorersRobert Picault andFrançois-Toussaint Hacquin. Many of the works had never been cleaned and needed repair from transportation.[4]: 106 Some paintings were restored or altered, such as Raphael'sMadonna of Foligno, which wastransferred from its original panel to a canvas support inc. 1800. In 1798, the Louvre actually exhibited a painting byPietro Perugino that was only half restored to demonstrate the repairs to the public.[4]: 106 These newcultural preservation methods were then used to justify the seizure and alterations of foreign cultural objects.[1]: 117
The French Army's removal of murals and frescoes was related to French conservators' tradition of transferring paintings onto new supports. They saw thedetachment of wall paintings as no different than moving a wooden altarpiece from its place.[11] Some of the radical treatments were difficult to execute successfully. In 1800, French officials tried to remove theDeposition, byDaniele da Volterra, from the Orsini chapel ofRome'sTrinità dei Monti church. Thestacco a massello technique—which removed part of the mural's plaster support—undermined the walls of the chapel, and the removal had to be halted to prevent the chapel from caving in.[11] The mural itself had to be extensively restored byPietro Palmaroli and was never sent to Paris.[11]
The French government planned to increase museum collections through the confiscation of foreign artworks as a show of national strength.[3] Its appropriations were at first indiscriminate, but by 1794, the French government developed structured programs for art acquisition through its wars.[12] With its "savant" system, exemplified by theCommission des Sciences et des Arts, experts would select which works should be taken—the system tried to reconcile imperial tribute with the French values of encyclopedism and public education.[7]: 21, 27 Its work was supported by peace treaties designed to legitimise their acquisitions: some treaty clauses required the delivery of artworks,[13]: 134 and others imposed art acquisitions as tribute from foreign nobility.[4]: 92–93 [1]: 132
In European history, the plundering of artworks had been a common, accepted way for conquerors to exhibit power over their new subjects.[1]: 115–116 In the late 18th century, however, the increased national control of artworks led to regulations that restricted the movement and sale of artworks; and the ideals ofenlightened monarchs discouraged treating art as mere plunder.[1]: 116
Still, the French justified their seizures by appealing to theright of conquest and republican ideals of artistic appreciation,[1]: 124 as well as the advancement of scientific knowledge and the "scientific cosmopolitanism" of theRepublic of Letters.[7]: 20 NordJacques-Luc Barbier-Walbonne, a Hussar lieutenant, proclaimed before the National Assembly that the works had remained "soiled too long by slavery", and that "these immortal works are no longer on foreign soil. They are brought to the homeland of arts and genius, to the homeland of liberty and sacred equality: the French Republic."[4]: 38 Bishop Henri Gregoire said before the Convention in 1794: "If our victorious armies have entered Italy, the removal of theApollo Belvedere and theFarnese Hercules should be the most brilliant conquest. It is Greece that decorated Rome: why should the masterpieces of the Greek republic decorate a country of slaves? The French Republic should be their final resting place."[14] This rhetoric contrasted the republican values of revolutionary France against the European monarchies that relied on serfdom, feudalism, and exploitative colonialism to argue that other countries were incapable of properly caring for their own culture[1]: 119 (Although, the French Republic still heldHaiti as a slave colony at this time.[15]).
Quatremère de Quincy, a student ofJohann Joachim Winckelmann and others like him, believed artworks should not be removed from their original context. Beginning in 1796, Quatremère argued against art appropriation. To rediscover the art of the past, he said it would be necessary to "turn to the ruins ofProvence, investigate the ruins of Arles, Orange, and restore the beautiful amphitheater ofNîmes", instead of looting Rome. Although Quatremère supported centralised cultural knowledge,[1]: 128 he believed that uprooting art from its original context as French officials were doing would hopelessly compromise its authentic meaning, creating new meanings instead.[11]
Quatremère's views were in the minority in France, but the conquered nations made appeals along similar lines. In occupiedBelgium, there were popular protests against art expropriation, and the Central and Superior Administration of Belgium tried to block French acquisitions. The administration argued that Belgians shouldn't be treated as conquered subjects but "children of the Republic".[1]: 125 InFlorence, the director of theUffizi argued that the galleries' collection was already owned by the people ofTuscany, rather than the Grand Duke who signed a treaty with the French. These appeals were sometimes supported by French officials. For example,Charles Nicolas Lacretelle argued that taking Italian art in excess would push Italians to supportHabsburg rule.[1]: 127
During and after their successful war against theFirst Coalition (1792–97), the French armies destroyed monuments, supported iconoclasm, and held art auctions of confiscated property in the Low Countries of northwestern Europe.[4]: 40–41 French armies began claiming property from within the newly formedBatavian Republic,[1]: 125 including from the collection of theHouse of Orange atThe Hague. Their efforts were led by Hussar lieutenant Nord Jacques-Luc Barbier-Walbonne, under the advice of artist and collectorJean-Baptiste Wicar.[16] In 1794, three paintings byPeter Paul Rubens, along with around 5,000 books from the University of Leuven, were sent fromAntwerp to Paris,[17]: 440 and the first shipment arrived in that September.[6]: 678 The Louvre received around 200 Flemish old-master paintings: they included 55 paintings by Rubens and 18 byRembrandt, as well as theProserpina sarcophagus and several marble columns from Aachen Cathedral.[17]: 443 Despite theanti-clericalism of France at the time, Flemish artwork with religious subjects were welcomed by Parisian authorities.[4]: 46
In early 1795, France conquered Holland, and one of the "savant" commissions—comprising botanistAndré Thouin, geologist Barthélemy Faujas de St-Fond, antiquarian Michel Le Blond, and architectCharles de Wailly—accessed the collection ofStadholder William V, who had fled.[7]: 21–22 However, the status of the Batavian Republic as a "sister republic" of France made acquisitions difficult to justify. In March 1795, French officials exempted all Batavian private property from seizure, except for the Stadholder's, because he had been so unpopular.[7]: 24 With the Stadholder's collection designated as private property and eligible for appropriation, four shipments of natural history artifacts (minerals, stuffed animals, books, etc.) and 24 paintings were sent to Paris in the late spring of 1795.[7]: 23
As Thouin described the selection works both as tribute and as a way to enforce cultural dependence upon France:
This tribute by a vanquished power will contribute much to perpetuate the glory of the victors, and make the neighboring powers tributary of France by forcing its subjects to draw on France for useful knowledge. It is undoubtedly the least expensive tribute to extract from the conquered, the most dignifying for the great people who impose it, the most fruitful for the goodness of humanity, a goal which any good government should never lose sight of.[7]: 26
The commission process set a pattern for the systematic appropriations to come,[12] and the French use of experts explains how they could select important Old Master artworks and discern them from copies and pieces made by artists' workshops.[4]: 46, 60 The first French exhibitions of the Low Country artworks took place in 1799, and included 56 works by Rubens, 18 by Rembrandt,Jan van Eyck'sGhent Altarpiece, and 12 portraits byHans Holbein the Younger.[9]: 180 From 1801 on, the French officials in charge of the new Belgian art institutions tried to resist any further export of the artworks.[4]: 50–51
In Italy, the practice of using special commissions to select art for appropriation was expanded and made more systematic.[4]: 61 The librarians of theBibliothèque Nationale had compiled extensive lists of the Italian books they desired. The commission included scientistsClaude Louis Berthollet,Pierre Claude François Daunou, andGaspard Monge; and artistsJacques-Pierre Tinet, Jean-Baptiste Wicar,Andrea Appiani, and Jean-Baptiste Moitte.[4]: 64 InLombardy, theVeneto, andEmilia-Romagna, commission members had the authority to select and acquire works at their own discretion.[12] On May 7, 1796, the French Directorate ordered Napoleon to transfer goods from the occupied territories in Italy to France:
General citizen, the executive directorate is convinced that the glory of art and that of the army under your orders are inseparable. Italy owes art the greater part of its riches and its fame, but the time of French rule has come, to consolidate and beautify the kingdom of liberty. The national museum should hold all celebrated artistic monuments, and you will not fail to enrich it with what awaits it from the armed conquest of Italy and those that the future still holds. This glorious campaign, as well as allowing the Republic to offer peace to its enemies, should repair the devastating vandalisms by adding to the splendor of military victories the enchantment of consoling and beneficial art.[18]
Napoleon himself had close ties to Italy, which inspired both his imperial ambitions and his appreciation for its art. French rule was also more welcomed than it had been in the Low Countries, especially among Italian intellectuals, which gave the appropriations some popular support.[4]: 62–63 Regions that were either favourable to French rule—such as those that eventually formed theCisalpine Republic,[19]: 408 —or were geographically hard to reach, had fewer works of art taken from them. Regions that actively fought the French, such asParma andVenice, had the transfer of artworks written as a condition of their surrender.[12] The French armies also dissolved monasteries and convents as they went, often taking artworks that had been abandoned or sold in haste.[9]: 180
From the spring of 1796, the first Napoleonic campaign in Italy removed art objects of all kinds, which were sanctioned in provisions of theTreaty of Leoben, theArmistice of Cherasco, theArmistice of Bologna, and theTreaty of Tolentino, culminating with clauses in the 1797Treaty of Campo Formio that transferred artworks from the Austria and the formerVenetian Republic.[4]: 63 Over 110 artworks were brought to France in 1796 alone. The early appropriations were organised by Jean-Baptiste Wicar. Drawing on his experience of cataloging the art collections of Italian duchies, Wicar selected which paintings would be sent to Paris from 1797 to 1800.[20] His work was continued later by Vivant Denon.[21]: 692 Local nobles, likeGiovanni Battista Sommariva, used the opportunity of the tumult to enrich their own personal collections.[21]: 692
During the occupations, Napoleonic officials continued to plunder artwork beyond that agreed to in the treaties—the commission had permission to amend the agreed number of artworks.[12] Resistance to these appropriations was decentralised, or sometimes nonexistent, because Italy did not yet exist as a single nation.[19]: 409
With the Armistice of Cherasco in May 1796, more than 67 Italian and Flemish artworks fell to France.Turin was made a part of French territory, and the negotiations were particularly cordial.[22]: 133 Fewer works were taken fromSardinia (which was ruled by theHouse of Savoy from Turin at the time), although French attention turned to the documents, the codices of the Regal Archive, and Flemish paintings in theGalleria Sabauda.[4]: 93
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The French enteredMilan in 1796, as part of thefirst Italian campaign of Napoleon in Lombardy. In May 1796, while there was still fighting atCastello Sforzesco, Tinet traveled to theBiblioteca Ambrosiana as a member of the French commission. There, Tinet tookRaphael's preparatory drawings forThe School of Athens fresco at theVatican; 12 drawings and theCodex Atlanticus ofLeonardo da Vinci; the precious manuscripts of theBucolics of the Virgin, with illuminations bySimone Martini; and five landscapes of Jan Brueghel forCarlo Borromeo that had been placed in the Ambrosiana of Milan in 1673.[23]The Coronation of Thorns, by a follower ofTitian between 1542 and 1543, commissioned by the monks of the Church of Santa Maria delle Graces, was sent to the Louvre. Many works were also taken from thePinacoteca di Brera and the cathedral ofMantua. From the Mantuan church of Santa Trinità, three Rubens works,The Baptism of Christ,The Gonzaga Trinity, and theTransfiguration were taken to Paris.[4]: 73–74
TheCodex Atlanticus was eventually returned,[24] in pieces, to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. In fact, many folios of the Codex are stored inNantes andBasel, while all the other notebooks and writings of Leonardo are at theNational Library of France, in Paris.[25]
The armistice between Napoleon and theDuke of Modena was signed in May 1796, in Milan by San Romano Federico d'Este, representative of DukeErcole III. France demanded 20 paintings from theEste Collection and a monetary sum triple that of the Parma armistice.[17]: 440 The first shipment was sent byGiuseppe Maria Soli, director of theAccademia Atestina di Belle Arti [it].[26]
On 14 October 1796, Napoleon enteredModena with two new commissioners,Pierre-Anselme Garrau andAntoine Christophe Saliceti, to sift through Modena's galleries of medals, and the ducal palace for collections of cameos and engraved semi-precious stones.[27] On 17 October, after taking many manuscripts and antique books from the ducal library, they shipped 1213 items: 900 bronze imperial Roman coins, 124 coins from Roman colonies, 10 silver coins, 31 shaped medals, 44 coins from the Greek cities, and 103 Papal coins. All were sent to theBibliothèque nationale of Paris, where they still reside.
In February 1797, Napoleon's wifeJoséphine took up residence at theDucal Palace of Modena and wished to see the collection of cameos and precious stones. She took around 200 of them, in addition to those taken by her husband. French officials also sent 1300 drawings found in the Este collections to the Louvre,[28] as well as 16 agate cameos, 51 precious stones, and many crystal vases.[29]
With the armistice of 9 May 1796, theDuke of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla was forced to send 20 paintings,[17]: 440 later reduced to 16, selected by French officials. In Piacenza, the officials chose two canvases from theCathedral of Parma—The Funeral of the Virgin andThe Apostles at the Tomb of the Virgin, by Ludovico Carracci—to be sent to the Louvre. In 1803, by order of the administratorMoreau de Saint Mery, the carvings and decorations of thePalazzo Farnese, as well as the paintingThe Spanish Coronation, were removed. Two paintings were taken from theduomo, those byGiovanni Lanfranco of saints Alessio and Corrado. Ettore Rota published tables of all the art taken: 55 works from the Duke of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla, and 8 bronze objects of Veleja, of which 30 works and the 8 bronzes were eventually returned.[30]Saint Corrado by Lanfranco andThe Spanish Coronation remain in France, where they are on display. The remaining works are missing.[30]
In Parma, after the 1803 orders and the creation of the FrenchTaro department in 1808, more precious objects were stripped from the Ducal archaeological museum, such asTabula Alimentaria Traianea andLex Rubria de Gallia Cisalpina [it]. One department prefect complained, after the departure of Vivant Denon, that "there remains nothing to serve as models for the schools of painting in Parma."[1]: 134
The French search for Venetian artworks was led by Monge, Berthollet, artistJean-Simon Berthélemy, and Tinet, who had previously been in Modena. After the defeat of the Venetian Republic, there were several revolts against the occupying French armies.[4]: 78 The resulting reprisals and confiscations were particularly harsh. Gold and silver works from theZecca of Venice and theBasilica di San Marco were melted down and sent to France or used to pay soldiers' salaries.[31] Religious orders were abolished, and some 70 churches were demolished. Around 30,000 works of art were sold or went missing.[32]
TheBucintoro, the Venetian state barge, was taken apart along with all its sculptures, much of which was then burned on the island ofSan Giorgio Maggiore to extract their gold leaf; theArsenal of Venice was dismantled, and the most beautiful arms, armour, and firearms were sent to France, with the rest (including more than 5,000 cannons) being melted down.[33][34] The weapons shipped to France were mostly placed in the collection of theMusée de l'Armée, including a bronze cannon made to celebrate an alliance between the Republic of Venice andDenmark–Norway.[34]
The Wedding at Cana, byPaolo Veronese, was cut in two and sent to the Louvre (where it remains). TheSan Zeno Altarpiece, byAndrea Mantegna, was cut apart and sent as well. Its platforms remain in the Louvre while the principal panel was returned to Verona, thus destroying the work's integrity. Giovanni Battista Gazola's renowned collection offossils from Mount Bolca was confiscated in May 1797 and deposited in theMuseum of Natural History in Paris that September. Gazola was retrospectively compensated with an annuity from 1797 and a pension from 1803.[35] He created a second collection of fossils, which were also confiscated and brought to Paris in 1806.[36]
In April 1797, the French removed theLion of Saint Mark and famous bronzeHorses of Saint Mark. When Napoleon decided to commemorate his victories of1805 and1807, he ordered the construction of theArc de Triomphe du Carrousel and that the horses be placed on top as its only ornamentation.[17]: 441
After the Armistice of Bologna, thePapal States sent over 500 manuscripts and 100 artworks to France on the condition that the French Army would not occupy Rome.[12] ThePope had to pay the costs of transporting the manuscripts and artworks to Paris. Commission member Jacques-Pierre Tinet took the Raphael altarpieces ceded by the armistice, but also an additional 31 paintings, a number of which were by Raphael and Perugino.[12]
Tensions ran high between the French and the Romans. In August 1796, Roman rioters attacked French commissioners to protest the appropriations,[17]: 441 and a French legate was assassinated.[4]: 83 The Pope himself worked to undermine the clauses of the peace treaty and to delay the actual shipment of the works. When the French government sent him an ultimatum on September 8, 1797, the Pope declared the treaty and Armistice of Bologna null and void.[4]: 74 When the Papal armies were defeated, Roman emissaries agreed to the harsher conditions of the Treaty of Tolentino. French officials seized art collections inRavenna,Rimini,Pesaro,Ancona, andPerugia.[4]: 76 [17]: 441
After French generalMathurin-Léonard Duphot was accidentally shot and killed outside the French embassy in December 1797, French armies occupied Rome, exiledPope Pius VI, and established the short-livedRoman Republic.[4]: 83–84 Although the public was assured that their monuments wouldn't be taken, French officials began systematically sacking the city after compiling an inventory of the Vatican's treasures.[4]: 84
Officials opened the Pope's rooms and fused Vatican medals of gold and silver for easier transportation. They tried to devise a way to remove the frescoes in the Vatican'sRaphael Rooms. The artworks were chosen by Joseph de la Porte du Theil, a French intellectual who knew the Vatican library well. He took, among other things, the Fons Regina, the library ofQueen Cristina of Sweden. Seizures also took place in theVatican Library, theBiblioteca Estense of Modena, the libraries ofBologna,Monza,Pavia, andBrera. The private library of Pope Pius VI was seized by Pierre Claude François Daunou after it was put up for sale.[17]: 445
General Pommereul planned to removeTrajan's Column from Rome and send it to France, probably in pieces.[11] This proposal was not acted on, however, due to the cost of transportation and the administrative obstacles created by theChurch to slow the process.[11]
For their anti-French advocacy, cardinalsGiuseppe Albani andRomoaldo Braschi-Onesti had their collections seized, from theVilla Albani and thePalazzo Braschi, respectively.[9]: 87 In May, Daunou wrote that the classical sculptures from Villa Albani filled over 280 crates, all to be sent to Paris.[9]: 180 Swiss sculptor Heinrich Keller described the chaotic scene in Rome:
The destruction here is awful; the most beautiful pictures are sold for a song [...] The holier the subject, the lower the price. Yesterday I went to the Capitol, where the situation is dire.Marc Antony stands in a kitchen dressed with a heavy wooden neckpiece and straw gloves; theDying Gaul is packed in straw and sack cloth to his toes; the beautifulVenus de' Medici is buried to her bosom in hay; whileFlora waits buried in a wooden crate.[9]: 180
In 1809, collections of marbles were sold to Napoleon byPrince Camillo Borghese, who was under significant financial strain due to the heavy taxation imposed by the French. The prince didn't receive the promised sum, but was paid in land requisitioned from the Church and with mineral rights inLazio. (Following the Congress of Vienna, the prince had to return all such compensation to their legitimate owners.)[37]
From March 1799, after Florence was occupied by the French armies, Jean-Baptiste Wicar chose which paintings would be taken from thePalazzo Pitti and sent to Paris.[20]: 120 In total, 63 paintings and 25 pieces ofpietre dure were taken from Florence.[4]: 96 In 1803, theVenus de' Medici was exported to France at the express order of Napoleon.[38]
The later looting of theGrand Duchy of Tuscany was led out by the director of the Louvre himself, Vivant Denon. Through the summer and winter of 1811, after theKingdom of Etruria had been annexed by the French Empire, Denon took artworks from dissolved churches and convents inGenoa,Massa,Carrara,Pisa,Volterra, and Florence.[9]: 185 InArezzo, Denon tookThe Annunciation of the Virgin, byGiorgio Vasari, from the Church of Santa Maria Novella d'Arezzo. His choice of these "primitive" Italian artworks was odd for the time: the work of the "primitive", or Gothic Italian, artists ofc. 1180–1400 was widely disliked.[4]: 152 [39]
In Florence, Denon searched the convent of Saint Catherine, the churches ofSanta Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi andSanto Spirito, and theAccademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, and sent back works to the Louvre, such asFra Filippo Lippi'sBarbadori Altarpiece from Santo Spirito,[40]Cimabue'sMaestà,[4]: 151 andMichelangelo's unfinished sculptures for thetomb of Pope Julius II were sent to the Louvre.[9]: 185 .
In January 1799 and after the occupation of Naples, GeneralJean-Étienne Championnet began seizing and shipping artwork in theKingdom of Naples. In a missive he sent on February 25, he said:
I announce to you with pleasure that we have found the riches we had thought lost. In addition to the Gessi of Ercolano that are at Portici, there are two equestrian statues of Nonius, father and son, in marble for you; theVenus Callipyge will not go alone to Paris, because we have found in the porcelain manufactory, the superbAgrippina that awaits death; the life-size marble statues ofCaligula, ofMarcus Aurelius, and a beautiful Mercury in bronze and ancient marble busts of great merit, among which one ofHomer. The convoy will leave in a few days.[41]
Paintings, sculpture, books, and gold were all taken by the French during the rule of the short-livedRepubblica Napoletana. The previous year, fearing the worst, KingFerdinand I of the Two Sicilies had transferred 14 masterpieces toPalermo, but the French soldiers plundered many works from nearby collections like theGallerie di Capodimonte and thePalace of Capodimonte.[4]: 96
As a papal diplomat, sculptorAntonio Canova made a list of Italian paintings that were sent to France.[42] Below is the list, as reported by French sources, which also notes how many works were subsequently repatriated or lost. Canova was primarily concerned with figurative works and sculptures, omitting minor or merely decorative artworks.[43]
| Place of origin and time of taking | Works taken | Works returned in 1815 | Works left in France | Works lost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milan, May 1796 | 19 | 6 | 11 | 2 |
| Cremona, June 1796 | 6 | 2 | 4 | |
| Modena, June 1796 | 20 | 10 | 10 | |
| Parma, June 1796 | 15 | 12 | 3 | |
| Bologna, July 1796 | 31 | 15 | 16 | |
| Cento, July 1796 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Modena, October 1796 | 30 | 11 | 19 | |
| Loreto, February 1797 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| Perugia, February 1797 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| Mantova, February 1797 | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| Foligno, February 1797 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Pesaro, 1797 | 7 | 3 | 4 | |
| Fano, 1797 | 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| Rome, 1797 | 13 | 12 | 1 | |
| Verona, May 1797 | 14 | 7 | 7 | |
| Venice, September 1797 | 18 | 14 | 4 | |
| Total 1796–1797 | 227 | 110 | 115 | 2 |
| Rome, 1798 | 14 | 0 | 14 | |
| Turin, 1799 | 66 | 46 | 20 | |
| Florence, 1799 | 63 | 56 | 0 | 7 |
| Turin, 1801 | 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| Naples, 1802 | 7 | 0 | 7 | |
| Rome (San Luigi dei Francesi) | 26 | 0 | 26 | |
| Parma, 1803 | 27 | 14 | 13 | |
| Total 1798–1803 | 206 | 116 | 83 | 7 |
| Savona, 1811 | 6 | 3 | 3 | |
| Genoa, 1811 | 9 | 6 | 3 | |
| Chiavari, 1811 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Levanto, 1811 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| La Sapienza, 1811 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Pisa, 1811 | 9 | 1 | 8 | |
| Florence, 1811 | 9 | 0 | 9 | |
| Parma, 1811 | 5 | 2 | 3 | |
| Foligno, 1811 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Todi, 1811 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Perugia, 1811 | 10 | 5 | 5 | |
| Milan (Brera), 1812 | 5 | 0 | 5 | |
| Florence, 1813 | 12 | 0 | 12 | |
| Total 1811–1813 | 73 | 23 | 50 | |
| Overall total | 506 | 249 | 248 | 9 |
On 27 and 28 July 1798, there was a grand celebration of French military victories,[17]: 437 which coincided with the arrival in Paris of a third convoy carrying artworks from Rome and Venice.[1]: 124 The triumphal parade was planned months ahead of time. As seen in commemorative prints, its motto was,La Grèce les ceda; Rome les a perdus; leur sort changea deux fois, il ne changera plus (Greece has fallen; Rome is lost; their luck changed twice, it won't change again).[17]: 438
The procession contained the Horses of Saint Mark, theApollo Belvedere, theVenus de' Medici, theDiscobolus, theLaocoön group, and sixty other works, among which were nine Raphaels, two Correggios, collections of antiques and minerals, exotic animals, and Vatican manuscripts.[45] Popular attention was also drawn to the exotic animals and the Black Madonna of theBasilica della Santa Casa, believed to be the work ofSaint Luke.[46]
After Italy, the French Army began its campaign inOttoman Egypt andOttoman Syria (both under rule by theOttoman Empire at the time). The army brought a contingent of 167 scholars with it, including Denon, Monge, and mathematicianJoseph Fourier.[4]: 90 [47]Their scientific expedition undertook excavations and scientific studies to study Egypt's pyramids, temples, and Pharaonic statues,[17]: 442 like thetomb of Amenhotep III.[48] Looting from the area was not considered a violation of international norms by Europeans, due to the influence oforientalism and European countries' tense relations with the Ottoman Empire.[1]: 124 Most of objects taken by the French Army were lost to the British, including the sarcophagus ofNectanebo II and theRosetta Stone, after theBattle of the Nile in 1798, and were sent to theBritish Museum instead.[49] The French scholars' studies culminated in theMémoires sur l'Égypte and the monumentalDescription de l'Égypte encyclopedia, which was finished in 1822.[47]
Following theTreaty of Lunéville between France and theHoly Roman Empire in 1801, manuscripts, codices, and paintings began to flow from northern and central Europe into Paris.[17]: 442 InBavaria, the works were selected by a Parisian professor, Neveu. Neveu delivered a list of the confiscated artworks to the Bavarian government, which later allowed them to make requisition requests.[4]: 101 However, the Holy Roman Empire's imperial collections remained mostly untouched.[4]: 117
With thePeace of Pressburg in December 1805 and theBattle of Jena–Auerstedt shortly after, Denon and his aidesCount Daru andStendhal began to systematically appropriate art from regions of the Holy Roman Empire,Westphalia, andPrussia.[4]: 118 WithBerlin,Charlottenburg, andSanssouci combed through, Denon went on to relieve thegallery of Cassel of 48 paintings. En route, the paintings were directed toMainz, where the Empress Joséphine saw them and convinced Napoleon to have them sent toMalmaison as a gift to her.[17]: 444 In the end, Denon selected over 299 paintings to take from the Cassel collection.[9]: 184 Additionally, nearly 78 paintings were taken from theDuke of Brunswick, and Stendhall collected over 500 illuminated manuscripts[4]: 126 and the famous art collection of the deceasedCardinal Mazarin.[17]: 442
In all, over a thousand paintings were taken from German and Austrian cities, including Berlin,Vienna,Nuremberg, andPotsdam—400 art objects came from Vienna alone.[50] As in Italy, many works were melted down for easy transport and sale, and two large auctions were held in 1804 and 1811 to fund further French military expeditions.[17]: 445
During and after thePeninsular War, hundreds of artworks were seized fromSpain, continuing until thefirst abdication of Napoleon in 1814.[17]: 443 Denon again selected works, including some byBartolomé Esteban Murillo,Francisco de Zurbarán, andDiego Velázquez, to send to Paris for display.[4]: 133
WithJoseph Bonaparte enthroned in Spain, most of the works came from the Spanish royal collection and were stored at thePrado in Madrid, although the Spanish administration was able to delay their shipment until 1813.[9]: 186 FromEl Escorial palace, GeneralHorace Sébastiani andMarshalJean-de-Dieu Soult claimed many Spanish paintings, particularly Murillos, while GeneralJean Barthélemy Darmagnac claimed mostly Dutch works from the collection.[4]: 135 Soult took so many Spanish paintings for himself that his collection eventually made up a significant portion of the Louvre's "Spanish gallery" after his death.[4]: 138
In 1812, French control of Spain began to collapse following theBattle of Salamanca. King Joseph tried to flee, and his first attempt at flight included an enormous baggage train of looted objects from the Spanish royal collection.[4]: 139–140 After theBattle of Vitoria in 1813, Joseph abandoned the artworks and fled with his army. British troops captured almost 250 of the abandoned paintings, and held a public auction to disperse some of the captured art.[51] TheDuke of Wellington himself sent around 165 to England.[4]: 140 The Duke apparently offered to return the paintings to KingFerdinand VII after the wars. Ferdinand declined the offer and in gratitude allowed the Duke keep the paintings, most of which are now on display atApsley House.[4]: 142
During theFirst Restoration of theBourbon dynasty in France underLouis XVIII (1814–15), the nations of theSixth Coalition did not initially stipulate the return of artworks from France. They were to be treated as "inalienable property of the Crown."[50] On 8 May 1814, however, Louis declared that works not yet hung in French museums would be returned, which led to the return of many of the Spanish works.[17]: 446 Manuscripts were returned to Austria and Prussia by the end of 1814, and Prussia recovered all its statues, as well as 10 paintings byLucas Cranach, and 3 byAntonio da Correggio. The Duke of Brunswick recovered 85 paintings, 174 Limoges porcelains, and 980majolica vases.[17]: 449 However most of the works remained in France.
After Napoleon'ssecond abdication in June 1815, followed by another restoration of Louis XVIII, the return of art became a part of negotiations, although the lack of historical precedent made it a messy affair.[49][1]: 137 [52]
Some nations did not wait for agreements from the Congress of Vienna, in order to act. In July 1815, the Prussians began to force restitutions. KingFrederick William III of Prussia ordered diplomat von Ribbentropp, art expert Jacobi, and reserve officer Eberhardt de Groote to deal with the returns.[17]: 450 On 8 July, they demanded Denon return all the Prussian treasures; but he refused, claiming that the returns weren't authorised by Louis XVIII.[4]: 162 Von Ribbentropp then threatened to have Prussian soldiers seize the works and imprison and extradite Denon to Prussia. By 13 July, all the key Prussian works were out of the Louvre and packed up for travel.[53]
When the Dutch consul arrived at the Louvre to make similar requests, Denon denied him access and wrote toCharles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord and the Congress of Vienna:
If we give up all the requests of the Netherlands and Belgium, we deny to the museum one of the most important assets, the Flemings ... Russia is not against, Austria has just received everything, and practically also Prussia. There is only England, that has nothing to ask from the museum, but that has since stolen theElgin Marbles from the Parthenon, and now thinks to make competition with the Louvre, and wishes to loot this museum to collect the crumbs.[54]
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French museum officials tried to hold onto any objects they had seized, arguing that keeping the artworks in France was a gesture of generosity towards their countries of origin and a tribute to their cultural or scientific importance. In 1815, for example, the French National Museum of Natural History refused the return of artifacts to theNetherlands, claiming that such would necessarily break up the museum's complete collections. The natural historians offered to select and send an "equivalent" collection instead.[7]: 28–29 In the end, with the aid of the Prussians, the delegates from the Low Countries grew so impatient that they took their works back by force.[9]: 186
On 20 September 1815, Austria, the United Kingdom, and Prussia agreed that the remaining artworks should be returned, and affirmed that there was no principle of conquest that would permit France to retain its spoils. Exceptionally, Napoleon's Egyptian spoils which had been ceded to the UK a few years earlier were not part of the negotiations.[55]Russian EmperorAlexander I of Russia was not part of this agreement, and preferred to compromise with the French government,[17]: 451 having just acquired for theHermitage Museum 38 artworks sold by descendants of Joséphine de Beauharnais to discharge her debts. The tsar had also received a gift from her shortly before her death in 1814—theGonzaga Cameo from the Vatican.[56] After the Vienna agreement was completed, the occupying forces of Paris continued to remove and send artworks to Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, and some Italian cities.[17]: 452
French representatives protested the returns and argued that they were illegal, as they lacked the force of treaty. Writing about a shipment of paintings to Milan, Stendhal said, "The allies took 150 paintings. I hope to be authorised to observe thatwe have taken them through the Treaty of Tolentino. The allies took our paintings without a treaty."[57] On the repatriation ofGiulio Romano'sThe Stoning of Saint Stephen [it] to Genoa, Denon maintained that the work "was offered as tribute to the French government from the city council of Genoa" and that transportation would endanger the work, due to its fragility.[58]
In comparison to the other nations, the Italian cities were disorganised and without the support of a national army or diplomatic corps to make official requests. Antonio Canova was sent by the Vatican on a diplomatic mission to the peace conference for the secondTreaty of Paris in August 1815.[17]: 455 Canova sent letters askingWilhelm von Humboldt andLord Castlereagh to support the return of Italian artworks and annul the conditions of the Treaty of Tolentino. In September, Canova also met with Louis XVIII, and that audience lessened French resistance to the repatriations.[49] By October, Austria, Prussia, and Britain had agreed to support Canova's efforts, which led to the return of many statues and other sculptures. The Vatican manuscripts were restored by Marino Marini, the nephew of a Vatican librarian, as well as lead type that had been seized from theCongregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.[17]: 455
British public opinion was generally against the French,[17]: 446–447 and the Duke of Wellington wrote to Lord Castlereagh to intervene on behalf of the Low Countries. Not satisfied, he sent his troops to join the Prussians in the Louvre to remove the Flemish and Dutch paintings from the walls.[4]: 167 As theCourier described it in October 1815:
The Duke of Wellington came to the diplomatic conferences with a note in his hand, by which he expressly required all works of Art should be restored to their respective owners. This excited great attention, and the Belgians, who have immense claims to make, had been hitherto obstinately refused, did not wait to be told that they could begin to take back what was theirs. ... The brave Belgians are even now on the way to returning their Potters and their Rubens.[17]: 448
The conditions of the 1815 Treaty of Paris, signed in November required that any artworks to be returned had to be properly identified and returned to the nations they originated from. These conditions made it difficult to determine where some of the paintings should be sent. For example, some Flemish paintings were mistakenly returned to the Netherlands, rather than Belgium.[6]: 681 The treaty also required effort on the part of the conquered nations for their art to be returned. The situation was only partially resolved when the British offered to finance the costs of repatriating some artworks to Italy,[49] with the offer of 200,000 lire to Pope Pius VII.[9]: 186
For various reasons, including lack of money, knowledge of the theft, or appreciation for the value of the works taken,[9]: 186 the restored allied governments did not always pursue the return of the appropriated paintings. The Austrian governor of Lombardy did not request the Lombardic artworks taken from churches, such asThe Crowning with Thorns by Titian. Ferdinand VII of Spain refused the return of several old master paintings when they were offered by the Duke of Wellington. They were taken toLondon instead.[59] The Tuscan government, under the Hapsburg-Lorraines, did not request works such as theSaint Francis Receiving the Stigmata byGiotto,Maestà by Cimabue, or theCoronation of the Virgin byFra Angelico. The ceiling paintings of the ducal palace in Venice were never requested, although Titian'sMartyrdom of Saint Peter was.[4]: 170 Canova never asked for 23 paintings dispersed throughout the French provincial museums, as a gesture of good will.[4]: 171
The Horses of Saint Mark were returned to Venice (notConstantinople, from where they were originally taken by the Venetians) in 1815, after it took workers over a week to remove them from theArc de Triomphe du Carrousel; the streets around theArc were blocked by Austrian dragoons to prevent any interference with the removal.[49] The Lion of Saint Mark was dropped and broke while it was being removed from theEsplanade des Invalides before being returned to its original piazza.[17]: 452, 456
On 24 October 1815, during negotiations of the treaty, a convoy of 41 carriages was organised that, escorted by Prussian soldiers, traveled to Milan. From there, the artworks were distributed to their legitimate owners throughout Europe.[50] In November, French general Athenase Lavallée reported that Spain had received 248 paintings, Austria 325, and Prussia 258 bronzes.[4]: 173
Between 1814 and 1815, theMusée Napoleon (the Louvre's name at the time) was dissolved. From its opening in 1793, artists and scholars had flocked to the museum to see its expansive, exhaustive collections,[9] includingCharles Lock Eastlake,Henry Fuseli,Benjamin West,Maria Cosway, andJ. M. W. Turner.[4]: 104 One English artist,Thomas Lawrence, expressed sorrow at its dissolution, despite the injustices that had led to its creation.[59]: 144 Still, the museum's impact remained:
The great museum of Napoleon did not end with the dispersion of its materials and masterpieces. Its example outlived him, contributing decisively to the formation of all the European museums. The Louvre, the national museum of France, had shown for the first time that the artworks of the past, even if collected by princes, belonged in relation to their people. And this principle (with the exception of the British royal collection) inspired the great public museums of the 1800s.[60]
— Paul Wescher
Wescher also pointed out that, "[The return of the looted artworks] contributed to the creation [of an] awareness of national artistic heritages, an awareness that did not exist in the 1700s."[60] The circulation of artworks during the Napoleonic era had actually increased the renown of artists that were otherwise unknown internationally.[19] Similarly, aristocrats likeCharles-François Lebrun created vastprivate collections by buying up or requisitioning artworks that had been put into circulation by the French armies.[4]: 138
After 1815, European museums were no longer just a hoard of artifacts but had become an expression of political and cultural power.[3] The Prado in Madrid, theRijksmuseum inAmsterdam, and theNational Gallery in London were all founded following the Louvre's example.[9]: 186 The conditions of the 1815 Treaty of Paris set a nationalist precedent for future repatriations in Europe, such as that ofNazi plunder in the 20th century.[6]: 681 [61]
The repatriations took a long time and were incomplete; almost half of the looted works of art remained in France.[6]: 682 As a condition for the return of the artworks, many of the works were required to be shown in a public gallery and were not necessarily returned to their original locations. For example, Perugino'sDecemviri Altarpiece was not reinstalled in its chapel in Perugia until October 2019, and remains incomplete.[12] The long time it has taken to return some appropriated works in turn has become an argument against their restitution, particularly with museums' adoption of "retention policies" in the 19th century.[3]
Attempts at reacquisition have continued, however, up to and including the present day. During theFranco-Prussian War, Prussia askedFrance to return works of art still held from the time of the looting but never repatriated[citation needed].Vincenzo Peruggia describedhis 1911 theft of theMona Lisa as an attempt to restore the painting to Italy, claiming incorrectly that the painting had been stolen by Napoleon.[8]: 83
In 1994, the then-general director of the ItalianMinistry of Culture,Francesco Sisinni [it] believed the conditions were right for the return ofThe Wedding at Cana of Veronese. In 2010, historian and Veneto official Estore Beggiatto wrote a letter to French presidential spouseCarla Bruni, urging the painting's return; the painting is still at the Louvre.[62]
Egypt has requested the repatriation of the Rosetta Stone, which was discovered by French soldiers in 1799 during their campaign in Egypt, then captured by British forces two years later; it was then brought to the British Museum, where it remains.[63] Additionally,Zahi Hawass, then the Antiquities Minister of Egypt, launched a campaign in 2019 to have theDendera zodiac returned to Egypt. It had been removed in 1822 from theDendera Temple complex by Sébastien Louis Saulnier after being identified by Vivant Denon in 1799, and is on display in the Louvre.[64]
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