Photo by Al Ianni, courtesy Flickr

The Louvre

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Old Masters French Youths “Cover Up” Angels in Cathedral Artwork Summer in the City: Group Shows Christie’s Sees Success With First Combined Sale An Elegant Mind London Sales Preview Beyond Celebrity

Send a letter to the Editor

Save to Del.icio.us Digg this

A slew of major additions to the museum's collection last year was followed by this year’s purchase of a portrait of Count Mathieu-Louis Molé, prime minister under King Louis-Philippe, painted by Ingres in the 1830s. The Louvre picked it up, after much haggling, for €19 million ($26 million), considerably more than its entire annual acquisitions budget of €7.25 million. In total, the museum's acquisitions from the first five months of this year are valued at more than €38 million.

How does it do it? With help from corporate donors, including the French central bank, which can write off 90 percent of their contributions from their taxes. But such acquisitions give the museum an aura of financial stability where none exists, and some art-world watchers, like market expert Souren Melikian (also the international editor of Art+Auction), question whether this pace is sustainable — or if financial trouble will set in in 2010.

Read more at the New York Times.