LOUVRE DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS RESIGN AS LEONARDO RESTORATION DIVIDES EXPERTS
Elaine Sciolino reports in the New York Times that the restoration of a five-hundred-year-old Leonardo painting at the Louvre, Virgin and Child With Saint Anne, has sparked a fierce battle between supporters of the project and those who believe that the cleaning process has been executed recklessly, causing irreparable damage to the work.
In the midst of the debate, two departmental directors at the Louvre have resigned. Neither Ségolène Bergeon Langle, the former director of conservation for the Louvre and France’s national museums, nor Jean-Pierre Cuzin, the former director of paintings at the Louvre, has officially enumerated any reasons for leaving. But, in a telephone interview with the Times, Bergeon Langle noted, “At every step along the way I prepared detailed reports in writing to the Louvre to explain my views, my wishes, my concerns . . . . I took the position for a long time that I would leave if certain red lines were crossed.” And according to Sciolino, Cuzin was reportedly “unhappy that more rather than less work was done on the painting.”
Sciolino also notes that the battle over the restoration has been atypical in that it stems from “the Louvre’s advisory body, a group of twenty experts without decision-making power but with global reputations.” Jacques Franck, consulting expert to the Armand Hammer Center for Leonardo Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a member of the advisory committee, explained, “There is no unique truth, but it is fair to say that we haven’t shared the same views about what should and should not be suppressed, the degree of cleaning . . . . I would have felt quite happy and at ease with a dirtier picture—without bright hues.” He added that the departure of Bergeon Langle and Cuzin was “an extremely regrettable loss.”
Sciolino writes that because Virgin and Child With Saint Anne_ was scheduled to be exhibited at the museum in March, there has been pressure on the museum to complete the restoration quickly. Incidentally, AFP reported that the Louvre was once again the world’s most visited museum, with 8.8 million attending in 2011, up from 8.5 million in 2010.
