A MASTER STROKE?
Museums hope to help gallery land David painting
The directors of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Musée de la civilisation à Québec said Thursday that they hope they can join forces with the National Gallery of Canada to acquire Jacques-Louis David’s prized painting of Saint Jerome.
The neoclassical masterpiece by David, an 18th-century French painter, is currently owned by the Notre-Dame de Quebec parish, the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec, which wishes to sell it to raise funds for its operations.
Quebec media reported this week that the National Gallery is selling Chagall’s La Tour Eiffel at auction in New York next month to raise money to buy the painting by David. The National Gallery refuses to identify the art work that it wishes to buy with the proceeds of the Chagall sale, and would not comment this week on news reports about the David painting.
But Nathalie Bondil, director general and chief curator of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, said that her museum and the Musée de la civilisation à Québec could conceivably expand their joint venture to buy the David painting to include the National Gallery. “Why not? We could be three now,” she said.
The Musée de la civilisation à Québec and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts “are working together to find the funds needed to acquire this painting through public and private funds,” said Stephan La Roche, director general of the museum in Quebec City. Asked if the two museums could collaborate with the National Gallery, La Roche responded: “Both institutions are open to developing constructive solutions to ensure the conserva- tion of this heritage jewel.”
Neither La Roche nor Bondil could confirm that the National Gallery was selling the Chagall in order to purchase the David. Still, Bondil spoke of her hope for a “win-win-win” outcome — one that could allow the National Gallery to retain the Chagall, with all three museums sharing the David painting and the parish receiving the money it needs.
Bondil said she tried to reach Marc Mayer, the National Gallery’s director and CEO, Thursday. Mayer declined a Postmedia request for an interview Thursday afternoon.
Bondil said she did not know if the scheduled sale of the Chagall — on May 15 — could be averted. “Maybe it’s too late,” she said.
She added that she was surprised the National Gallery opted to sell the Chagall rather than dip into its annual $8-million acquisitions budget.
“I would never have thought it would have been necessary,” Bondil said. “When you sell a painting, it’s an extreme solution.”
Meanwhile, an online petition at change.org begun last week has garnered 279 signatures from people who do not want the National Gallery to sell the Chagall work. Started by Toronto resident Natasha Abramova, the petition asks Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly to halt the sale.
Asked if the Chagall could be withdrawn from auction, a spokeswoman for the National Gallery said she could not disclose the gallery’s contractual obligations with Christie’s, the auction house.
Last week, Mayer told reporters that using the gallery ’s acquisition budget to buy the unnamed painting “would pretty much put us out of business for a whole year and we couldn’t justify that for all the other collecting areas.” He also said the gallery had unsuccessfully approached both donors and the federal government for financial support to buy the work.
“We’ve exhausted all of those other options that we had at our disposal and time is of the essence.” Mayer said last week.
This week, La Roche and Bondil said their museums had not been contacted regarding the David painting. “The National Gallery did not contact the Musée de la civilisation, despite the fact that it is the repository of the painting,” La Roche.
Mayer has said the work of art that the gallery wants to acquire is a “national treasure” owned by a Canadian. He said the National Gallery had the right of first refusal for that work, and that the work might otherwise be acquired by a foreign buyer and leave Canada.
La Roche said his museum has a right of first refusal until mid-June to submit an offer on the David painting to the parish.