Jean Siméon Chardin's Basket of Wild Strawberries (1761) sold for € 24,4 million$26.8 million to New York art dealer Adam Williams at an Artcurial auction last week, setting a record for the artist. That is until the Louvre decided to acquire the painting. Despite the fact that the museum lacked the funds to purchase the painting during the auction, it has since blocked the sale on the grounds that it is a national treasure under French law. After all, it is Chardin's sole depiction of strawberries.
When a piece is designated as a national treasure in France, the state can prohibit its sale for two and a half years. A similar strategy was used in 2019 when Rembrandt's The Standard Bearer (1636) was scheduled to be auctioned. In the case of Rembrandt, the painting was never auctioned, and museums were given the first refusal.
In Europe, declaring a work a national treasure is frequently used to prevent the sale and export of important pieces. In Spain, collector Jaime Botn has been embroiled in legal trouble after attempting to export Picasso's Head of a Young Woman (1906), which had been designated a national treasure. Other countries will simply prohibit export in the absence of national treasure status. The United Kingdom recently prohibited the export of Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Omai (1776), citing the work as "outstanding significance" and "a signal work in the study of colonialism and empire, scientific exploration, and the history of the Pacific."
In the case of the Chardin, the Louvre must raise funds to buy the Basket of Wild Strawberries. Whereas the artist's previous highest price was $8 million, this work sparked a massive bidding war. The issue is that they may not have the necessary funds. The Louvre already has 41 Chardins in its collection.
Selena Mattei