Brigitte Fouré, mayor of Amiens, asks Madonna to lend her a work, lost in 1918 by the city, and today in the possession of the singer.
“Madonna you probably don’t know Amiens”. In a video published on Facebook on Monday evening, the mayor of the city, Brigitte Fouré, called on the famous singer to invite her to lend a painting to the Picardy museum.
In this message, Brigitte Fouré refers to an article from Figaropublished last week, in which it is specified that Madonna would have in her possession a famous painting lost during the bombardment of Amiens in 1918.
Disappeared from the museum of Amiens
This work, explains Brigitte Fouré, had been lent to the museum of Amiens by the Louvre museum. The city of Amiens then “lost track”. The mayor also specifies that she does not dispute “the legal acquisition of this work”.
The mayor of Amiens thus throws a bottle into the sea to have the work loaned to her, as part of the city’s bid to become European Capital of Culture in 2028.
“I would like that on this occasion, this year, you could lend us your painting. This so that the people of Amiens can find this work and enjoy it”, launches Brigitte Fouré in her video.
The work in question is the painting entitled Diana and Endymionpainted in 1822 by Jérôme-Martin Langlois, and disappeared from the Musée de Picardie in 1918 during a First World War bombardment.
As specified Le Figaro in his investigationa similar work but devoid of date and signature mysteriously reappeared in 1989 at an auction in New York, United States and was purchased by the singer for 1.3 million dollars (i.e. 1.2 millions of euros).
In 2015, it was thanks to a report by the magazine Paris Match at Madonna that a curator from Amiens noticed that the painting was exhibited at the American artist’s. Following this discovery, the Picardy museum filed a complaint against X for the theft of the painting. The singer never reacted.
