{"id":2061057,"date":"2026-07-25T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2061057"},"modified":"2026-07-25T00:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:01:14","slug":"french-customs-donates-chagall-forgotten-for-decades-after-seizure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2061057","title":{"rendered":"French customs donates Chagall forgotten for decades after seizure"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/GettyImages-944550220.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tEarlier this week, French customs near the Swiss border gifted an artwork by Marc Chagall to a nearby museum in France, after it had been languishing in bureaucratic purgatory, forgotten on a warehouse shelf for over 20 years, reported ICI Besan\u00e7on<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2006, French authorities stopped a truck carrying artworks from France into Switzerland, and seized an etching by Chagall, along with a 1959 drawing by modern sculptor and painter Ossip Zadkine, because they lacked required certificates for removing them from the country. The two people transporting the works were arrested and fined for hiding the artworks, according to the Times of London<\/em>. Afterwards, both artworks were effectively forgotten for nearly 20 years due to the \u201cweight of bureaucracy,\u201d per one source speaking to the Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat oversight has now been rectified. On Monday, the eastern Franche-Comt\u00e9 region\u2019s customs office donated the 1924 Chagall etching, titled \u201cL\u2019Acrobate au violon\u201d [Acrobat with Violin], to the Mus\u00e9e des Beaux-Arts et d\u2019Arch\u00e9ologie de Besan\u00e7on.<\/p>\n

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Besan\u00e7on Museum of Fine Arts Showcasing its 1st work by Marc Chagall<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Acrobat with the Violin\u201d (1924), seized in 2006 following an attempt to illegally export it to Switzerland, was donated to the museum by the Franche-Comt\u00e9 Regional Customs Office. pic.twitter.com\/RcWgGZTfcm<\/p>\n

\u2014 La Gazette Drouot \u2013 International (@Gazette_Inter) July 21, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\n\tThe Chagall depicts the Russian-French artist\u2019s characteristic, often surreal motifs. At its center is a man lithely balancing atop a violin, beside a floating, upside-down chicken. A goat-like animal stands on its front legs in the foreground, as its body bends back into the air, and it appears to be playing the violin. A small Jewish Star of David can be seen on the man\u2019s right pant leg.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou can clearly recognize Chagall in this somewhat dreamlike style, this dream world that is very detached from reality,\u201d said Ma\u00ebl Vandewalle, curator at the Besan\u00e7on museum, who also helped authenticate the artwork. Issued as an edition of 150, the Chagall etching is estimated to be worth only a few thousand euros, but it is the first and only piece by Chagall to enter the Besan\u00e7on museum collection, where it will go on view in September. \u201cThe customs service has really honored us,\u201d said Ludovic Fagaut, the town mayor. <\/p>\n

\n\tChagall\u2019s highest auction record is for a 1928 painting, Les Amoureux [The Lovers],<\/em> that sold at Sotheby\u2019s in New York for $28.45 million in 2017. As for the Zadkine drawing, which also touches on a musical theme, with a depiction of a man playing a guitar, it was given to the Mus\u00e9e Zadkine in Paris.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/GettyImages-944550220.jpg?w=1024″] Earlier this week, French customs near the Swiss border gifted an artwork by Marc Chagall to a nearby museum in France, after it had been languishing in bureaucratic purgatory, forgotten on a warehouse shelf for over 20 years, reported ICI Besan\u00e7on. In 2006, French authorities stopped a truck carrying artworks from France […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2061057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2061057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2061057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2061057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2061057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}