The Masterpieces That Napoleon Stole, and How Some Went Back
His art seizures paved the way for similar French excesses in Africa a century later. Yet the return of some treasures after his defeat set a model for museums today.
“Napoleon Crossing the Alps” at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris, as part of a major exhibition commemorating the 200th anniversary of the French military commander’s death.Credit...Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA, via Shutterstock
By Farah Nayeri
PARIS — The spoils of war were positively magnificent.
When Napoleon Bonaparte led his army across the Alps, he ordered the Italian states he conquered to hand over artworks that were the pride of the peninsula. The Vatican was emptied of the “Laocoön,” a masterpiece of ancient Greek sculpture, and Venice was stripped of Veronese’s painting “The Wedding Feast at Cana” (1563).