When Madonna posted a photo of herself at home last Christmas on her Instagram account, behind her was a masterful work that seemed to be a painting by Jérôme-Martin Langlois (1779-1838), executed in 1822, entitled Diana and Endymion. When the French city of Amiens was bombed in 1918 during World War I, most of the paintings in the Musée de Picardie were saved, except 15 that are still missing, including Langlois' masterpiece.
In the 1970s, a young art historian named Jacques Foucard, who is now a curator at the Louvre, began research into these missing works. He was particularly curious about a scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses that was a royal commission in 1817 to decorate a room in Versailles. This painting was Diana and Endymion, painted by Jerôme-Martin Langlois. The work remained in the collections of King Louis XVIII until it returned to the State in 1873 to be exhibited at the Musée de Picardie. But the painting disappeared again from the museum's inventory in 1911… Forgotten or destroyed? Foucard's investigation ultimately leaned towards the second option.
What a surprise then to find in 1989 on sale at Sotheby's a painting of Diana and Endymion which looked exactly like the missing canvas. However, there were questions about whether it's the same painting from Amiens since some details, such as the size (the one from Sotheby's is three centimetres shorter in height) and the back (the painting has neither stamp on the back, nor signature, nor date), do not match. When it was determined that it was a copy of the original, the painting was bought for $1.3 million dollars by Madonna.
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The case did not make waves until a report in Paris Match in 2015 that showed the pop singer posing in her stairwell in front of the painting. The Musee de Picardie then immediately filed a 'complaint against X' for the theft of the fifteen paintings that disappeared in 1918, including Diana and Endymion. Though the lawsuit has since stalled (it's unclear if the complaint was sent to the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Goods or even if Madonna is aware of the suit), it resurfaced last Christmas, when Madonna posted on Instagram a photo of herself in front of the masterful canvas again. French newspaper Le Figaro then published an investigation on 9 January to alert Brigitte Fouré, the Mayor of Amiens.
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The mayor addressed Madonna via a video posted on her Facebook account to request a loan of the Langlois painting. Fouré is determined to show the public this work, even if it's not identified as the original, as it would help Amiens' bid to be the European Capital of Culture for 2028.
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The investigation could well continue in 2023 and would require additional analysis of the painting. A lead that remains unresolved suggests the possibility that the work was vandalised to destroy the date, signature and stamp on the back of the painting. Madonna has yet to reply to the loan request.
