The sale of a still life with wild strawberries by Jean-Siméon Chardin to a New York dealer for a record 24.3 million euros with buyer's premium has been put on hold because the Louvre wants to acquire the work.
The director of the Paris museum, Laurence des Cars, told Le Figaro that she wanted the 1761 oil painting Le panier de fraises des bois to be classified as a "national treasure" and was seeking the help of sponsors to ensure that she could do so work for the Louvre could buy.
The painting, measuring 38 by 46 centimetres, was sold to dealer Adam Williams at the Paris auction house Artcurial last week.
He had bid in the hall – as “The Art Newspaper” writes, possibly on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
An advisory commission is now scheduled to meet in mid-April.
She almost never turns down a request from the Louvre.