Leonardo da Vinci in the heart of a dispute between France and Italy

The Italian secretary of state for culture sparked a controversy after questioning the loan of De Vinci's works at the Louvre, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of his death. The artist, who died in France, was above all Italian, rebels.

The tensions have already raged for several months between French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, in particular for Europe and migrants. The exit of the Italian secretary of state for culture further aggravates relations between the two countries.

In the pages of Corriere della Sera, November 17, Lucia Borgonzoni, a member of the far-right League Party, questioned a loan agreement signed between Italy and the Louvre. Rome was still involved in the availability of Leonardo da Vinci's paintings, on the occasion of an exhibition at the Louvre Museum in 2019, for the 500 years of the artist's death. Lucia Borgonzoni now believes that the terms of this agreement are "inconceivable".

"We have to discuss everything again, when the autonomy of the museum is at stake, the national interest can not come to the fore, the French can not have everything," said the Italian secretary of state. "Leonard is Italian, he died only in France, the loan of these paintings at the Louvre would place Italy on the sidelines of an important cultural event," he said.

"Italy did not exist yet"

Leonardo da Vinci, born in 1452 in Tuscany, has in fact spent only the last years of his life in France, where he died in 1519. Invited by King Francis 1stit had arrived in 1515. Can we therefore say that it was only Italian? ? This topic is blurred according to the historian Pascal Brioist. "It would be necessary to know what would have been Italian at that time, because Italy did not exist yet.There were only principalities," notes this Renaissance specialist. "Leonard was finally recognized in France, and in 1515 he chose to leave because he suffered from the competition of younger generations like Raphael or Michelangelo, and he knew he no longer had a future at the court of Pope Leo X. He had every reason to accept Invitation of Francis I. "

The historian also points out that this is not the first time that the artist is at the center of a nationalist quarrel. "The Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911 by an Italian worker who wanted to return it to Italy," he recalls. "Under Mussolini in the 30s, the Fascists also saw Leonardo da Vinci as the incarnation of Italian genius. They had designed an exhibition with models of his machines to demonstrate the greatness of Italy. More recently, during world football, many Italian citizens shouted the scandal when the Louvre Museum appropriated the figure of the Mona Lisa to celebrate the Blues' victory in the final.

Following statements by the Secretary of State for Culture, some of its supporters have also asked social networks that France returns to Italy the "stolen" paintings, including the famous portrait of Mona Lisa. A complete nonsense forPascal Brioist : "All these paintings were sold by Leonardo da Vinci in France in the sixteenth century".

"He belongs to all mankind"

Beyond these nationalist tensions, the historian of art Jacques Franck, consultant of national museums and specialist of Leonardo da Vinci, is surprised by the times of this announcement: "How can we return to agreements that have been taken for a long time? The Louvre has to be organized well in advance, only a year before the opening of the great exhibition, it is really short, when you publish a catalog, it must be ready months in advance. "

In 2017, Dario Franceschini, the predecessor of Lucia Borgonzoni, had thus agreed to lend Leonardo's great masterpieces preserved in Italy: "La Scapigliata", "The Vitruvian Man" and "The Battle of Anghiari" ( 39; Academy of Venice), the "Portrait of musician" (Milan Ambrosian Art Gallery), the "San Girolamo" (Vatican Museum) or "The Annunciation" (Museum of the Florence Offices). In return, France had pledged to lend Raphael's works to the Italian Scuderie del Quirinale museum in 2020, for the 500th anniversary of his death. Moreover, as Télérama says, the exhibition at the Louvre was to begin in 2019 "only in October to leave the field open to the Italians". "And only for two months, not anymore," says Pascal Brioist.

What would Leonardo da Vinci think of this fight at last? Although he admits that he can not put himself "in his own skin", Jacques Franck thinks above all that this borderless artist "wanted his art and message to be celebrated everywhere, it was basically nobody's property. Humanity ".