Chagall Sale to be Reversed
Marc Chagall, "The Eiffel Tower," 1929
oil on canvas, 39" x 32" (collection of the National Gallery of Canada, purchased 1956, accession number 6434)
The National Gallery of Canada has confirmed it is reversing a controversial decision to sell a painting by Marc Chagall.
"The Eiffel Tower will remain in the national collection," the gallery said in a short statement Thursday.
The confirmation follows reports by CBC News and the Globe and Mail, which cited unidentified sources as saying the gallery’s board of trustees decided Wednesday to withdraw the painting from a May 15 auction at Christie’s in New York.
The gallery will have to pay a penalty to the auction house.
A letter earlier this week from gallery director Marc Mayer and the chair of the gallery’s board of trustees, Françoise Lyon, had indicated the sale would proceed.
The gallery has faced considerable public criticism over the planned sale, aimed at raising funds to buy a 1779 painting by Jacques-Louis David it said was at risk of leaving Canada.
The Quebec government moved earlier this week to keep the painting by David in Quebec by designating it as a heritage object.
"With David’s Saint Jerome no longer at risk of leaving the country, the National Gallery’s board of trustees has concluded that it is no longer necessary to proceed with the sale of The Eiffel Tower," the National Gallery's statement said.
