THE MAISON CARTIER DONATES TO THE LOUVRE

05/02/2020

The Maison Cartier was now recently a benefactor of the Louvre. The Maison has financed the renovation of the famous Apollon gallery dedicated to the royal jewel and ornament. This gallery was closed for works for 8 months and reopened on January 15^th, 2020.

Indeed, those restoration works were mainly focused on:

 

• Its decoration: paintings and statues that had been made in two centuries and the Gobelins tapestries.
• In addition, the light, in particular of the gold has been magnificently optimized and staged in order to highlight the jewels.

 

Cartier wanted to show the symbolic importance of the jewels for the monarchical identity of the Ancien Régime as well as the Second Empire.

 

The Apollon Gallery, 196ft long, has hosted the first jewels collection founded in 1523 by François 1er, which was transmitted from kings to kings. However, this majestic collection was sold during the French Third Republic in 1887 during an auction sale in Paris.

 

This collection includes three incredible diamonds which belonged to the royal family:

 

• The Régent, of an exceptional size of 140 carats has belonged to Louis XIV;
• The Sancy, biggest diamond in Europe during the XIX century;
• Hortensia, that was offered to the king Louis XV by Tavernier, French explorer.

 

Those displays are dedicated to the jewels incarnating the main historical reigns:

 

• the French Ancien Régime
• Premier Empire
• Monarchie de Juillet
• Second Empire

 

This gallery is also exhibiting the famous vases collection founded by Louis XIV, in fact he was a great fan of vases as well as precious stones. The exhibition hosts vases which are more original one than another with various shapes such as boats, shells…

 

For sure, this exhibition will be of particular interest for the jewelry and gemology lovers, therefore ArtLuxury Experience will be delighted to arrange a dedicated VIP visit of the Louvre including this Apollon gallery.