The French Louvre Acquires 272 Eastern Icons from a Lebanese Collector
On Wednesday, the Louvre Museum announced that it has acquired a private Lebanese collection featuring 272 Eastern Christian icons. These artworks will be showcased in a dedicated wing for Byzantine and Eastern Christian art, set to open in 2027.
The collection includes a diverse array of icons, notably from Greece, Russia, and the Balkan region. Spanning from the early 15th century to the early 20th century, the works represent a broad range of artists and styles.
Originally owned by prominent Lebanese art collector George Abou Adal, the majority of the collection was curated between 1952 and the early 1970s. His son later expanded it through acquisitions at public auctions during the 1990s.
Artifacts from Aleppo, Syria
In a statement, the French museum highlighted that the purchase includes “a rare set of icons produced during the renewal of the Greek Patriarchate of Antioch in the 17th century, particularly in Aleppo, crafted by Arabic-speaking Christians.” This adds a unique historical and cultural dimension to the collection.
The icons were previously displayed to the public in 1993 at the Carnavalet Museum in Paris and later in 1997 at the Museum of Art and History in Geneva. Several pieces have since appeared in other exhibitions and have been the subject of scholarly studies and publications.
The Louvre’s Byzantine and Eastern Christian art section will house approximately 20,000 works, with
hundreds set to be exhibited starting in 2027 across a 2,200-square-meter space. These artifacts span
from the 3rd century to the 20th century and cover a vast geographical area, stretching from Ethiopia to
Russia, and from the Balkans to the Near East and ancient Mesopotamia.
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