Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Bos, Agnès

Titel

Émile Molinier, the ‘incompatible’ roles of a Louvre curator

Ist Teil von

• Journal of the history of collections, 2015-11, Vol.27 (3), p.309-321

Erscheinungsjahr

2015

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Oxford Journals 2020 Humanities

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The career of Émile Molinier at the Musée du Louvre was marked by important research on the works in his care, by his pioneering approach to teaching the history of art, by his forceful personality (which sometimes bordered on intransigence), and by the special relationships he fostered with collectors. The latter resulted in Molinier writing around 15 catalogues of major private collections, chief among them the catalogue of the collection of Frederick Spitzer, which posed various ethical problems at the time of its publication. This controversy was magnified further during the sale of Spitzers collection, when Molinier was accused--in terms laced with anti-Semitic sentiments--of colluding with the collectors family for financial gain. Moliniers links with other Jewish collectors and donors to the Louvre--including Isaac Camondo and Adolphe de Rothschild--fuelled these attacks, not to mention his often ambiguous relationship with the Marquise Arconati-Visconti, a supporter of Dreyfus in the eponymous affair. [Publication Abstract]