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  HE LOUVRE, THE LARGEST MUSEUM IN THE WORLD and one of the four or five greatest in the world, today made a rare appearance at the Hotel Drouot for a mixed auction of assorted art, paintings and antiques. The event occured in the tiny room number sixteen #16, located in the basement of the small but cozy Hotel Drouot close to the Mayor's House of the 9th district of Paris, where most Parisian auctions are usually held. And among the other rather ordinary one hundred and sixty-six lots, five extremely rare sketch books by William Bouguereau were on sale this afternoon, November 26th.
Damien Bartoli, the world recognized expert on Bouguereau, was present in the audience and reports what happened next:
Just after the beginning of the session, under the direction of Maitre CAMARD, commissaire-priseur, the five booklets came up for sale on the auction block, lot number two. The head Curator of paintings from the Louvre sat quietly until the sketch books came up for sale. They were only expected to bring at most $4,500! But bidding was suddenly very spirited, including foreign phone bids. Rapidly it went up in price and was 'hammered' down at $26,000 euros plus premium.
Then it was the turn to the the Louvre Curator to act. She stands up and says loudly : Musees Nationaux, Droit de preemption! (Which means National museums, Pre-emption obligatory!) So,
even if (our agent) had won about the price (bid), the final bid would have been paid by the Louvre and the booklets could go nevertheless in the Louvre's Library vaults ... So we must have NO regrets at all ...
One thing is sure: everybody was very surprised about the high bids for the
booklets. Things are looking up, even in my country!
26,000 euros plus premium equals just under $US30,000 which was an incredible bargain when you consider that fully worked out drawings by Bouguereau have sold privately for $US35,000 and $US65,000 respectively for at least two recently known to our staff. This could only have occurred due to the archaic laws in France that prevent anyone other than a licensed art and antique dealer from bidding at auction.
Those sketchbooks would have most certainly sold for 8 to 10 times that price in New York, where characteristic paintings by Bouguereau regularly sell for prices between $US500,000 and $US2,000,000. Additionally, the sketchbooks were shown before the auction only under glass and opened up to only one drawing each, and people were not allowed to look through the booklets. Thus those who bid were truly buying "a pig in a poke". One can't help but wonder if the Louvre curator had been permitted to examine them in advance?
William Bouguereau, who was once (1885) the President of the five departments of French Academy, Head of the Salon, and Commander of the Legion of Honor at the end of the 19th Century, was widely recognized as the greatest living French master of his time.
Then badly denigrated with the advent of modernism, indeed for most of the 20th century, Bouguereau's fortunes are once again on the rise, as he becomes valued and appreciated by collectors, scholars, and art lovers the world over. In 2000, the world record price for his paintings at auction was broken for the umpteenth time during the last twenty years when Charity sold for $3,600,000.
Fred Ross, Chairman of the Art Renewal Center (artrenewal.org) calls him the 19th century Rembrandt, clearly destined to be recognized as one of the five or six greatest masters in the past five hundred years. You can find the most extensive information on Bouguereau, including a biography and nearly two hundred of his finest works at:
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William Bouguereau
Study for the Flagellation
Pencil on paper
Collection of Fred and Sherry Ross
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