We are delighted to invite you on Saturday, April, 11 at 2:30 p.m., free admission, for a conference on “Napoleon and the War of the Museums: Art History and International Politics between Rome and Paris, from Louis XIV to Napoleon I”, by Jean-Marc Olivesi, Chief Heritage Curator, current director of the Maison Bonaparte in Ajaccio (National Museum)

Marked by the archaeological excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii, nourished by the great themes of the European Enlightenment, and engaged in the political experiences of the Revolution and the Empire, the Western elites of the late eighteenth century constantly referred to Greek and Roman Antiquity through Politics, Philosophy and Arts. Thus, after the Convention had transferred the Apollo Belvedere from Rome to Paris, the Emperor brought the Roman scholar and curator Ennio-Quirinio Visconti to France to create the Department of Antiquities at the Louvre, which in 1803 became the Musée Napoléon: the greatest museum of its time. The Vatican Antiquities were even displayed there, along with paintings from across Europe. Napoleon wanted Paris to gather prestige attached to the city of Rome and to the Roman Empire. From Louis XIV, founder of the French Academy in Rome, to Napoleon installing this same Academy at the Villa Medici: the project was political, historical, scientific and artistic.
Antiquity is the universal language that unites all these elements.

For more information, call us: +33 4 20 19 02 40 or email us: musee@mariana-lucciana.fr