Paolo Veronese, (Detail) The Wedding Feast at Cana, 1563.
Writer and art historian Cynthia Saltzman will discuss the compelling story of Napoleon’s Plunder and the Theft of Veronese's ‘Feast’, with critic and art historian Michael Prodger. As Napoleon and his army cut a swathe through Europe, the young commander also embarked on a campaign of wholesale art theft. In Italy, he appropriated some of the most magnificent works of the High Renaissance for the Louvre where they served as a monument both to French ascendancy and more importantly to his own power.
One of the most notable stolen paintings was Paolo Veronese's vast Wedding Feast at Cana (1563), which the French tore from a wall of the island monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice in 1797 and sent back to France with other spoils of Napoleon’s campaign. After Waterloo, the Allies forced the French to return many of the Louvre's plundered paintings and sculptures but the Veronese remains in Paris to this day, hanging across from the Mona Lisa.
Napoleon’s Plunder and the Theft of Veronese’s ‘Feast’ by Cynthia Saltzman is published by Thames & Hudson on 13 May. Ticket holders will receive a code to use online for 25% off the retail price.
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This is an online event hosted on Zoom which can be watched live, or on-demand for three weeks afterwards. You will receive your link to access the event in your email confirmation and the on-demand link after the event ends.