French City Begs Madonna for Long-Lost Artwork
The painting was previously thought to be destroyed.
Madonna is quite literally synonymous with art and it seems like the iconic pop singer may be the owner of a long-lost French masterpiece.
The city of Amiens is pleading with the artist to loan it Diana and Endymion, the painting she acquired in 1989 for approximately $1.3 million USD, three times more than the estimated price.
The mayor Brigitte Fouré made her case in a video message, begging her, “Madonna, you probably haven’t heard of Amiens, but there is a special link between you and our city. This painting is probably a work that was lent to the Amiens museum by the Louvre before the first World War after which we lost trace of it.”
Commissioned by Louis XVIII, the painting was completed 1822 and exhibited at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, now the Musée de Picardie in 1878. Many assumed the work was destroyed when the French city was bombed in 1918, so it is unclear if the version in Madonna’s possession is the original or a copy.
