Water from a hailstorm leaked into the Musée du Louvre on Saturday (3 Might), nearly dripping on Cimabue’s Maestà, arguably the best early Western European portray. Courting from 1280-85, it’s the centrepiece of the exhibition A New Have a look at Cimabue: On the Origins of Italian Portray (22 January-12 Might). I used to be within the gallery, noticing the drops earlier than the guards had been alerted.
A Louvre spokesperson confirmed to The Artwork Newspaper at the moment that the museum “did expertise some water infiltration in areas the place the glass roofs are situated”. Importantly, “no works had been broken”.
Some drops of water truly fell on the bottom of the close by Three Acolytes (1264-67), by the studio of the sculptor Nicola Pisano. He’s thought-about the founder of recent sculpture. The work is on mortgage from the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence.
Drips fell about one metre away from Duccio di Buoninsegna’s Madonna of the Franciscans (1285-88). This small portray, lent by Siena’s Pinacoteca Nazionale, is thankfully in a glass case.
Cimabue’s Maestà (1280-85) on show on the Louvre, with the primary drips from a roof leak seen on the ground at backside proper © The Artwork Newspaper
A violent hailstorm hit central Paris round 4pm on 3 Might. At 4.19pm I noticed water dripping down from the tall ceiling within the Louvre’s Salle Rosa (room 717, simply off the famed Grande Galerie), the place the Cimabue exhibition is being held.
Guards had been shocked once they noticed me taking a look at spots of water on the ground, only one metre in entrance of the raised platform supporting Cimabue’s Maestà (its title, “majesty” in Italian, refers back to the enthroned Virgin and Christ baby surrounded by angels).
The image is 4.2m tall and a couple of.8m vast and remains to be in its unique adorned body with painted figures. It could be extraordinarily troublesome logistically and visually intrusive to guard it with glass and it’s subsequently displayed with none glazed safety. The work is greater than twice the peak of a tall man, so there was nothing that the guards may do to offer emergency safety.
The Maestà is on picket panels, which might make it notably weak to water injury. Had the leak within the ceiling been simply two metres away from the place the water fell in, the impact on the Maestà may have been disastrous.
The portray was acquired by the Louvre in 1812 after it had been looted by Napoleon from the church of San Francesco in Pisa. Final 12 months it was totally restored, for the primary time in almost 200 years, and this was the primary cause for holding this exhibition now. Discoloured varnish was eliminated, bringing the portray again nearer to its unique look and revealing the dazzling blue of the Virgin’s mantle.
Two members of the Louvre safety workers inspecting water falling on the bottom of the Pisano sculpture © The Artwork Newspaper
The close by marble Pisano sculpture of the Three Acolytes, which stands almost 1m excessive, was not in a show case. Water broken the adjoining label and a few drips fell on its stone base, which was most likely made later than the Thirteenth-century sculpture. It’s unclear whether or not a couple of drips might have fallen on the Pisano, however as it’s stone hopefully any injury would have been minimal.
Warding workers did what they might when it comes to emergency motion, with two of them later holding a small tarpaulin above the sculpture, like an umbrella. Apart from this, there appeared little that the involved workers may do, apart from to alert their safety supervisor. At the least initially, there was no signal of a conservator.
The exhibition was closed to the general public at 4.51pm, simply over half an hour after the drips first appeared. A Louvre spokesperson says this was “to permit firefighters to examine the roofs”. They added that “the trigger was instantly recognized: a broken glass seal”. The exhibition was reopened as regular on Sunday morning.
Three Louvre safety workers examine Duccio di Buoninsegna’s Madonna of the Franciscans (1285-88); water fell on each side of the case © The Artwork Newspaper
No drops seem to have fallen straight on the Cimabue or Duccio, and hopefully no injury has been triggered to the Pisano.
The leak within the roof backs up the issues of the Louvre’s president, Laurence de Automobiles, who in January wrote in a confidential memorandum to France’s tradition minister Rachida Dati that the constructing wanted pressing and intensive renovation.
De Automobiles, who has headed the Louvre since 2021, added that some areas of the constructing advanced “are not watertight”. Nonetheless, this doesn’t clarify why what now appears a weak room was used to accommodate an exhibition with loans from overseas museums, notably for a present with such fragile and essential works. These embody a few of the very earliest masterpieces of Western European portray.
Louvre workers cleansing up close to the doorway to the Cimabue exhibition simply after the gallery was closed to the general public © The Artwork Newspaper
Key works from two of Italy’s main museums had been threatened with injury. Of the 44 works within the Cimabue exhibition, which was primarily based on complete analysis that has added enormously to our information of the artist, solely six items are from the Louvre’s personal assortment. Such monographic reveals are extremely depending on loans from worldwide museums.
French president Emmanuel Macron visited the Louvre on 28 January and pledged that the museum would embark on a serious restoration venture, which can value round €750m. Completion is more likely to be a few years away, within the 2030s.
On this event, three masterpieces hopefully suffered a slender escape. However the incident will put strain on each the Louvre and the French authorities to guard its artwork and proceed with the deliberate restoration of its constructing.
