Who owns beauty ? World art and culture in our museums (7)

The famous painting L'Enseigne de Gersaint, by Antoine Watteau in the 18th^century , has been in Berlin's Charlottenburg Palace almost since its creation. It was acquired immediately after its creation by Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, who was a great lover of French culture. Since the 18th^century , it has been and remains in Berlin, much to the dismay of a number of French intellectuals who have consistently called for its return. At the end of the Second World War, Berlin's museums were in ruins; the victorious Americans organized a two-year touring exhibition in the United States of some 100 works from these museums: they were seen as a testimony to culture, and also as objects to be seen precisely because they had been taken from the defeated Nazi country. The works were sent back to Europe, and a series of diplomatic itinerant exhibitions was organized in Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. It was in this context that L'Enseigne de Gersaint was exhibited between February and May 1951 at the Petit Palais in Paris. Curator André Chamson took great care with the museography, creating sumptuous cases, giving the works plenty of space and presenting them under neon lights, to give a feeling of humanity. L'Enseigne de Gersaint was given special prominence over the other works, with its own room, security cordon and guard. This Petit Palais exhibition was conceived and presented as a moment of European reconciliation, but it was also a bone of contention, crystallizing desires for revenge - Gersaint's Enseigne being taken as an example of the French soul.