Plunder: Napoleon's Theft of Veronese's Feast, Saltzman - B +

           "This is the story of Napoleon's theft of Paolo Veronese's Wedding Feast of Cana, a vast, sublime canvas that in 1797 the French tore from a wall of the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice." From the moment in 1563 that the Benedictines first displayed it, the painting became immensely famous. When he invaded Italy in 1796, Napoleon had his eye on the art treasures of the northern regions, with the goal of filling the Louvre. The French would rationalize their thievery with the statement: "The fruits of genius are the patrimony of liberty." The first two cities he extracted money, food, horses, and high art from were Parma and Milan. Rome soon followed. Napoleon then turned his sights on Venice. He demanded 16 paintings for the Louvre, including masterpieces by Bellini, Tintoretto, Titian, and Veronese. The Feast was not portable. It was 22 ft. x 32ft, affixed to a wall on an architects frame and stretcher. When it was taken down, it tore in three different places. To add insult to injury, Napoleon settled his war with Austria by giving Venice to the Hapsburgs. As the French left, they took the four horses from St. Mark's.

            The Venetian paintings were placed on a 32 gun frigate and sailed for eleven weeks to reach France, where they were placed on barges to proceed up the Loire.  It would eventually take a year for them to reach Paris. The Feast, cut in half, reassembled, and restored was put on display for the first time in the Louvre on May 21, 1801. The French advocated to the rest of Europe that they were bringing something extraordinary from behind closed doors to a vast number of people. It was not theft, but liberation. 

            When Napoleon was finally defeated, the Allies were in no rush to return the looted art, lest they appear to not be supportive of the restored monarchy. The Prussians, at gun point, rescued some of their artwork. The Austrians, on behalf of Venice, took back the four horses from St. Mark's. The  Papacy made a demand for its paintings and statuary. Somehow, the French managed to hang onto about half of what they had taken from Italy. The Feast stayed  because of fears about moving it again. The French offered, and the Austrians accepted, a few others as substitutes. The Feast was hidden by the French in the countryside during the  Franco-Prussian War, and again in WWII. Today, it hangs just across from the Mona Lisa in the Salle des Etats in the Grand Gallerie of the Louvre.