The thief who built the Louvre.. Bonaparte's thefts that made the museum universal

When the French armies led by Napoleon Bonaparte were invading European countries on their way to the Levant in the period between (1803-1815), Bonaparte, in addition to his military role as Emperor of France and commander of the armies, set his sights on another goal that was no less important in his eyes. On military control of the colonial country.

This goal was to make Paris the cultural capital of not only France, but all of Europe, the Middle and Near East.

In order to achieve this goal, Bonaparte looted and stole all his armies of artifacts and historical paintings, as these artworks were transferred to Paris for an art museum, the first of its kind in Europe.

This museum is the famous Louvre Museum, the Louvre Castle built by King Philip Auguste in 1190, to be a fortress of the city during his long absence due to many wars, later turned into a royal palace inhabited by all those who succeeded in ruling France up to Louis XIV, who decided to convert the palace into a school And an art gallery, and left it to Versailles to be the new seat of government.

With the start of the French Revolution, the French authorities announced that the castle would be transformed into a national museum that houses French historical works. Indeed, the museum opened to the public on August 10, 1793;

With the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte to power in the early nineteenth century;

The new museum at that time was waiting for many, many surprises.

Bonaparte decided that the museum should be worthy of the glory and legendary victories of France, and that the Louvre should be a unique encyclopedic museum that includes the artistic and heritage treasures of all the colonies under the control of France.

Thus, it is the first of its kind in Europe and even the world, as it contains works from various cultures and eras.

Indeed, when Bonaparte colonized a country or conquered a region, its artistic treasures and historical works were transferred to the Louvre, which Bonaparte wanted to exceed all expectations. The museum, which is today one of the largest and oldest museums in the world because it contains more than 380,000 antiquities and about 35,000 works of art, In fact, it is the fruit of decades of looting, robbery and theft.

When the museum was an art school and displayed historical French artifacts, it contained only 500 works of art.

A number that was, of course, not befitting the prestige of colonial France, as it seemed to Bonaparte, who raised this small number to a record in the years of his wars, as he brought tens of thousands of paintings, sculptures and artifacts from the countries he conquered.

Art vs Peace

Napoleon did not stop at the looting of the colonial countries, but rather he made the assignment of artworks part of any peace agreements with any country.

Indeed, his condition became that he obtain the best pieces of art, which he chooses himself, in order for there to be peace.

In just one year, he had seized 500 manuscripts from the Vatican and 300 relics in the Treaty of Tolentino that France signed with the Papal State on February 19, 1797. Among the list of the stolen were a number of the most prominent historical manuscripts and paintings, which are still on display - To this day - in the Louvre.

Among those stolen was the painting "The Burial of St. Petronilla", painted in 1623 by the Italian painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri.

The Transfiguration, the last of the paintings by the Italian Renaissance giant Raphael, was also seized.

The painting "The Wedding Feast at Cana", painted in 1563, by the Italian Renaissance painter Paolo Veronese, was also seized by treaty.

Napoleon ended up removing the winged lion in St. Mark's Square and the four copper horses in the basilica and transporting them all to France.

In this regard, the French authorities organized a great celebration of Bonaparte's military victories, and publicly displayed the stolen art monuments in the streets of Paris, including the horses of Saint Mark, the symbol of the Republic of Venice.

"The looting caused by Napoleon's conquest of the peninsula was no less disastrous than the defeat itself," Walter Corzi, professor of art history at La Sapienza University in Rome, says of Roman artworks brought home after the end of the Napoleonic era.

A wound in dignity

Art historian Cynthia Saltzman, in her book Plunder: Napoleon's Theft of Veronese's Feast, states that the systematic looting of artworks that Napoleon adopted in all his military wars was intended to psychologically shake enemies and "leave a wound to close to their hearts.

Art historian Benedicte Savoy agrees with her, who in 2018 participated in a presidential report - on behalf of President Emmanuel Macron - looking to compensate Africa for its looted treasures, which today is one of several tributaries of what is known as the Louvre of artistic and cultural richness. .

Savoy believes that Bonaparte is not the only one responsible for what the brown continent has suffered due to colonialism. The white man's legacy goes beyond what Napoleon did, and it continues to this day.

Savoy said, "African colonialists plundered the natural resources of these countries and seized all their cultural treasures and humiliated their people."