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French village demands New York Met Museum returns ancient relic

A small town in South-Western France is demanding the return of a precious gold and silver bust from the Metropolitan museum of New York, who claim to be the artefacts rightful owners.

Published: 12 January 2018 15:50 CET

French village demands New York Met Museum returns ancient relic

AFP

The mayor of Saiut-Yrieix-La-Perche, a village home to 7000 inhabitants, ordered a letter to be sent to the New York museum on the 10th of January officially demanding that the relic be returned to its rightful home in the Haute-Vienne department.

The 13th century bust of Aredius, encrusted with precious stones is said to contain the skull of Saint Yrieix, also known as Saint Aredius.

Currently exposed in the Metropolitan Museum of New York and having been on exposition there for more than 100 years, the museum claims to be the undisputed owners of the bust.

Un bourg de Haute-Vienne réclame au Metropolitan Museum la restitution d'un reliquaire médiéval https://t.co/0mS90X5iDd

— Medieval Art (@MedievalArt1) January 11, 2018

But two local local French historians, Brousse and Grandcoing, have discovered that the artefact was purchased by the famous banker and art enthusiast, JP Morgan.

The act of purchase found in the JP Morgan collection states that the bust was sold in 1907 by an English antique dealer for 300, 000 gold francs, who himself acquired the bust from a French antique dealer.

It remains a mystery as to how the Frenchman seized the antique in the first place.

Having been described as a “national treasure” by Judith Kagen, the curator of the Office of the Preservation of the Movable and Instrumental Heritage, she claims that the bust of Aredius had been taken in an “illicit” way.

According to the expert, the legitimate owners of the artefact remain the commune of Saint-Yrieix.

The mayor of the town hopes to resolve the situation “amicably” with the New York museum, but warns that the village is within its right to take civil action if the bust is refused return to its rightful home.

Futuristic Gehry tower opens in World Heritage Arles

Gehry's Luma Tower opens in Arles, France. Photo: H I / Pixabay

The tower, which opens to the public on Saturday, is the flagship attraction of a new “creative campus” conceived by the Swiss Luma arts foundation that wants to offer artists a space to create, collaborate and showcase their work.

Gehry, the 92-year-old brain behind Bilbao’s Guggenheim museum and Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, wrapped 11,000 stainless steel panels around his tower above a huge glass round base.

It will house contemporary art exhibitions, a library, and offices, while the Luma Arles campus as a whole will host conferences and live performances.

From a distance, the structure reflects the changing lights of this town that inspired Van Gogh, capturing the whiteness of the limestone Alpilles mountain range nearby which glows a fierce orange when the sun sets.

Mustapha Bouhayati, the head of Luma Arles, says the town is no stranger to
imposing monuments; its ancient Roman arena and theatre have long drawn the
crowds.

The tower is just the latest addition, he says. “We’re building the heritage of tomorrow.”

Luma Arles spreads out over a huge former industrial wasteland.

Maja Hoffmann, a Swiss patron of the arts who created the foundation, says
the site took seven years to build and many more years to conceive.

Maja Hoffmann, founder and president of the Luma Foundation. Photo: Pascal GUYOT / AFP

Aside from the tower, Luma Arles also has exhibition and performance spaces in former industrial buildings, a phosphorescent skatepark created by South Korean artist Koo Jeong A and a sprawling public park conceived by Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets.

‘Arles chose me’

The wealthy great-granddaughter of a founder of Swiss drug giant Roche, Hoffmann has for years been involved in the world of contemporary art, like her grandmother before her.

A documentary producer and arts collector, she owns photos by Annie Leibovitz and Diane Arbus and says she hung out with Jean-Michel Basquiat in New York.

Her foundation’s stated aim is to promote artists and their work, with a special interest in environmental issues, human rights, education and culture.

She refuses to answer a question on how much the project in Arles cost. But as to why she chose the 53,000-strong town, Hoffmann responds: “I did not choose Arles, Arles chose me.”

She moved there as a baby when her father Luc Hoffmann, who co-founded WWF,
created a reserve to preserve the biodiversity of the Camargue, a region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Rhone river delta known for its pink flamingos.

The tower reflects that, with Camargue salt used as mural panels and the
delta’s algae as textile dye.

Hoffmann says she wants her project to attract more visitors in the winter, in a town where nearly a quarter of the population lives under the poverty line.

Some 190 people will be working at the Luma project over the summer, Bouhayati says, adding that Hoffman has created an “ecosystem for creation”.

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