In March 2022, Jean Siméon Chardin's still life Le panier de fraises des bois ("The Strawberry Basket") from 1761 caused a stir. After centuries in private ownership, it was auctioned at Artcurial in Paris for €24.4 million (over an estimate of €12-15 million) and thus far exceeded the French painter's auction record of €7.11 million, which had been set just a few months earlier. The highest bid was submitted by New York art dealer Adam Williams on behalf of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
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But the museum couldn't be happy about its successful purchase for long, because shortly after the auction, the Louvre expressed its interest in Chardin's masterpiece and sought to classify the painting as a French cultural treasure, which would make it impossible to export from France. This classification took place in April 2022, giving the Louvre a 30-month deadline to raise the €24.4 million that The Strawberry Basket had achieved at auction to add the painting to its own collection.
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How strongly the French felt connected to this still life by Chardin soon became more than obvious. First, the LVMH group donated €15 million, making up almost two thirds of the required amount. Other major donors, including the Société des Amis du Louvre, followed, so that by the fall of 2023 only €1.3 million was remaining to purchase the work.
On November 7, 2023, the Louvre launched a public fundraising effort as part of a Tous Mécènes! (All Patrons) campaign to raise the remaining amount. And the participation was enormous: more than 10,000 people donated a total of €1.6 million, which is a new record participation in a Tous Mécènes! campaign (the sponsorship campaigns were introduced in 2010). On February 29, 2024, the museum was able to announce that the acquisition of Chardin's masterpiece was complete.
Related: The Louvre Calls for Donations to Acquire Chardin's Strawberry Basket
Laurence des Cars, director of the Louvre, said, "Record broken for the Chardin Strawberry Basket! I wholeheartedly thank the ten thousand donors to our Tous Mécènes! campaign, who, throughout the country, and often for the first time, have chosen to contribute to this acquisition. The exceptional mobilization of all these Louvre lovers is a particularly exciting sign of the public's attachment to our heritage, to the very idea of the museum, to its promise of sharing. I therefore hoped that this marvelous masterpiece by Chardin would come to meet all French people, first in Lens, then in Brest and Clermont-Ferrand, before joining the walls of the Louvre."
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Laurence des Cars also points out the painting's upcoming tour, which will allow art lovers to view Chardin's The Strawberry Basket in several places in France before it finally comes home to the Louvre, which has 41 other paintings by the artist. The first stop will be the Louvre-Lens on March 21, followed by a stopover in Paris in June. Afterwards it will travel to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest (from July 2) and to the Musée d'art Roger-Quilliot in Clermont-Ferrand (from October 2).
