But where had the gallant trio
Zéphyr, Flore et l'Amour
gone , commissioned by the Sun King for his private Trianon groves, one of the last masterpieces of the end of his reign?
And what had become of the allegory of abundance sculpted in the same Carrara marble by Lambert Sigisbert Adam around 1755 for the nearly disappeared palace of Louis XV at Choisy?
At Versailles, the curator Lionel Arsac solved these enigmas.
They had been tormenting him for a long time, he like his predecessors and many specialists in Old Regime statuary.
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Versailles goes back to the time of Louis XV
There is indeed a black and white photo of the group in a collective reference work,
French sculptors of the 17th and 18th Centuries
.
There is a trellis behind it.
However, this index was insufficient for a localization.
Lionel Arsac discovered that he was in France.
Well not really.
In Paris, but in an embassy.
That of the Republic of Angola.
In 1881 the Rothschild brothers acquired the finest pieces from the dispersion of the estates of the Marquis de Marigny, brother of Madame de Pompadour.
Lionel Arsac, curator
“It turns out that this seat since 1979 is none other than the Ephrussi de Rothschild hotel…
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