Abstract
The Musée du Louvre, first called " Musée central des arts ", then " musée Napoléon " from 1804 to 1814 and " Musée royal " after 1814 and 1815, was for the first fifteen years of the 19th century the center and focus of European art history.
At the time of its creation in 1793, its galleries housed only works confiscated from the clergy, aristocracy and king, but the following year, France, through the Convention, decided to appropriate scientific and artistic objects that could be used to complete its collections outside the French borders of the time, following the armies. Between 1794 and 1812, military campaigns led to the almost annual accumulation of a considerable heritage in Paris, either through treaties or confiscations, which can be described as " patrimoine annexé ".
The Louvre's role as a showcase for priceless collections from all over the continent made it an exceptional venue, helping to make Paris the capital of what would later be called " European tourism ". So when, after Napoleon's two abdications in 1814 and 1815, the rightful owners of these works were reluctant to reclaim them, the debate that began concerned not just France but the whole of Europe. From 1814 to 1817, a considerable mass of texts, positions and opinions, often bilingual and in all European languages, dealt with the question of restitutions and the rebalancing of cultural geography. Sometimes, the subject is treated in a polarized, nationalistic way, but often it is dealt with in a cosmopolitan spirit, guided by the desire to determine what is best for the works and for Europe. It is therefore of the greatest interest to try, despite the difficulties, to take into account the whole of these discourses rather than having a national or nationalistic reading of this event, and to contrast the sadness of some and the joy of others, the loss of some and the recovery by others of their heritage, their dignity, or their ideas of regeneration of the arts.
