France does not let out of the country was stolen in 1818, now Tournier

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France does not let out of the country was stolen in 1818, now Tournier

London Weiss Gallery acquired the painting "Christ Carrying the Cross" by the French painter Nicolas Tournier at the 2010 Art Fair in Maastricht for 550 thousand dollars

France expressed its rights to the XVII century masterpiece, which was presented at the International Exhibition of works by old masters in Paris its current owners in Britain, reports BBC.

London Weiss Gallery acquired the painting "Christ Carrying the Cross" by the French painter Nicolas Tournier at the 2010 Art Fair in Maastricht for 550 thousand dollars.

However, the French government announced that the painting was stolen from a French museum in 1818 and for almost two hundred years of its whereabouts remained a mystery.

France imposed a ban on the export pictures from their territory, and the Ministry of Culture is preparing documents proving ownership of the artwork. In Weiss Gallery decision of the French authorities refused to comment.

"Carrying the Cross," written in 1632, initially located in one of the chapels in the south of France in Toulouse. However, after the French Revolution, the picture was taken over by the state, and it was placed in the Toulouse Museum of Augustins. In 1818 the painting was stolen, and nearly two centuries of the picture were not known, but in 2009, "Christ Carrying the Cross" Tournier appeared in Florence - after the death of a collector's painting to be auctioned off.

The painting, Nicolas Tournier (1590-1639), Baroque painter Caravaggio school, depicts Jesus Christ during the Stations of the Cross at Calvary. Stylistically, the works Tournier, who after studying in Rome settled in Toulouse, close to the Italian painter Bartolomeo Manfredi.

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