THE EVOLUTION OF OUR MAISON

or the transformation of a gallery in a place for meeting and cultural exchange where everyone is enriched by each other.

I have always been marked and influenced by the generosity of my parents towards the national collections throughout their careers. Their kindness and altruism were undoubtedly inherited from their love of life and what it enabled them to be.

Thanks notably to Daniel Alcouffe, a great friend of my parents, at the time director of the Departement of Decorative Arts at the Louvre Museum, they donated more than a dozen major works to the Museum, as well as to the Château of Versailles, thus also contributing to the enrichment of its collections.

I have always wished to perpetuate this tradition. I am convinced of the importance of that culture, and we have—since the creation of the gallery – made it a point of honour to preserve our workshops, so as to ensure the transmission of the unique know-how of French craftsmanship in Decorative Arts.

With this team, centred around Étienne Merlette, a true pillar of our Maison and a tremendous advisor on the quality and authenticity of the pieces we intend to acquire, we are in a position to offer our clients nonintrusive restoration work and an in-depth study of the objects we present.

And thanks to the experience and knowledge of the men and women on our team at 6 rue Royale working with Maïmouna Traoré, I have also endeavoured to make each visit a moment of mutual enrichment and exchange for all. A place where everyone can benefit from exchanges with one another and where everyone can share the love of decorative arts —generally described rather crudely as merely “classical”—in an indepth fashion… A place based on the old idea of the “salon” where curators, art historians and collectors as passionate as we are can exchange ideas and experience moments of pleasure.

In the same place where François-René de Chateaubriand would visit Mme de Staël:

“I went to see her one morning on Rue Royale; the shutters of her windows were two-thirds closed; the bed was against the wall at the far end of the room, leaving only a narrow space on the left: the curtains drawn back on their rods formed two columns at the head of the bed. Madame de Staël was propped up by pillows in a half-sitting position.”

François René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d’outre-tombe, Book XXIX, chapter 22.

People no longer just come to our gallery to buy a particular object, but to discover, share, appreciate and also learn together…

The year 2024 gave us the opportunity to provide significant assistance in the publication of three books devoted to the decorative arts, which seemed to me to serve as important contributions to our profession.

I was immediately won over by the relevance of the work and the research carried out by Miriam Schefzyk for her book Martin Carlin et les ébénistes allemands (Martin Carlin and the German ébénistes). The accuracy of the iconography is such a valuable contribution to a better understanding of Martin Carlin’s work that it seemed self-evident to me that we should help to finance the French edition of this book.

We also had the honour of contributing to the long-awaited publication of the book devoted to the gilded bronzes held in the private mansion of the Camondos, which they bequeathed, along with its contents, to the Museum of Decorative Arts. This family plagued by a tragic destiny is legendary for its generosity, and their name remains a key reference for all art lovers. It was a great pleasure to work with the team at the Museum of Decorative Arts, another iconic venue.

As regards the catalogue of the exhibition devoted to André Charles Boulle, not only did we help to finance its publication, but we also took part in a sponsorship programme enabling the curators of the exhibition to make it possible to bring in important works from foreign museums, notably from the Victoria & Albert Museum, so as to better understand the work of such a major artist, who, nearly 300 years after his death, still contributes to France’s renown throughout the world; the catalogue includes two entries written by David Langeois, director of the research department here in our Maison.

We accepted to be part of the patronage, having been instantly won over by the seriousness and enthusiasm of the curators of this major exhibition, the first one in France to be devoted to this artist! I would like to reiterate my thanks to Mr Mathieu Deldicque, director of the Condé Museum, and to Mr Sébastien Evain and Mr William Iselin for organising this exhibition.

The excellent work of David Langeois, who has been directing research at our Maison for twenty-five years, has enabled us to rediscover a pair of major vases executed in Sarreguemines, which formed part of La Grande Commande (the Grand Commission) commissioned by Emperor Napoleon I in 1810 to support the national manufactories. These vases, delivered in 1812, were part of the furnishings of the French embassy in Rome and disappeared after the Duke of Blacas (1771-1839) took them to furnish the French embassy in Naples during the reign of Charles X.

The investigative work of our team made it possible to reconstruct the history of these vases; it was our publication in 2022 that no doubt enabled the team from the Mobilier National to ascertain the existence of these vases, despite them being put up for public auction in Paris.

Our involvement with these vases has been extended to all our teams, being damaged and even broken, they have been restored to their original condition thanks to the expertise and know-how of our workshops. All these investments have therefore enabled us to make this additional contribution to the national heritage.

I would like to seize this opportunity to thank the Christie’s auction house, represented by its director at the time, Mr Guillaume Cerutti, for its elegance and honesty.

The year 2024 also gave us the opportunity to rediscover a major artwork by the Roman goldsmith and bronze-caster Luigi Valadier. The work, which was identified by our teams, had until now only been known from an extant engraving.

It was missing from a group of objects executed by the artist and kept in the Louvre Museum, which were the subject of an exhibition and publication by the museum in 1994.

This Monument to Pius VI, described in the museum’s inventories in 1801 had disappeared at the time and was considered lost! It reappeared at a public auction in France in 2024, where we spotted and identified it.

We are delighted and proud to offer it to the museum in memory of my parents, and to see it return to its well-deserved place within the national collections.

This year, we have also decided to put our experience to good use in restoring to its original state a piece of furniture dear to my parent’s hearts and also to mine.

It represents all the elegance, charm and poetry that emanate from the creations of the best 18th-century ébénistes. This piece of furniture, a work by Joseph Baumhauer, belongs to the collections of the Institut de France and is on display at the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild.

Its condition is now a cause for great concern and we have decided to finance and supervise the restoration work carried out in our workshops and those of Tristan Desforges and Anne Jacquin. We will gladly go beyond the mere financing of this restoration and allow the Institut to benefit from the experience of our teams through the intermediary of its curator, Ms Orianne Beaufils, whose commitment has won us over. This restoration is only just at the inception stage and anyone among you who would like to is welcome to join us in this wonderful adventure.

Here are just a few examples of what makes me so glad today and that I wanted to share with you. I hope I have managed to convey to you an inkling of my passion and the good fortune I consider to be mine, in being able to learn every day surrounded as I am by masterpieces and exceptional people.

None of this, however, would be quite as enjoyable in my eyes were it not possible to associate my wife and partner Marina, as well as our wonderful children and Alec.

Benjamin Steinitz.