In the corridors, people talk about an “exceptional” legacy. A “gift from the sky”, even, which recently arrived in the reserves of the Nantes art museum. A Parisian collector gave the cultural establishment no less than 34 works: 20 paintings ranging from the 17th to the 19th century and 14 drawings dating back to the 16th century. “A major enrichment”, estimated at more than 800,000 euros, which could be the largest donation in ancient art before that of 1852, “with the Clarke de Feltre collection”, indicates the museum.
An event all the more remarkable as the collector, Jacqueline Boejat, was until now unknown. “Jacqueline Boejat, without direct descendants, has designated the Nantes Art Museum as the legatee of her collection of works of art,” explains the museum. Without us knowing, beyond a second home that she owned in La Baule, what motivated her choice.”
Be that as it may, the museum is pleased to be able to strengthen its collection of Flemish and Dutch art from the 17th and 18th centuries, but also to complete its collection of French art from the end of the 17th and 18th centuries. Thanks to a constant policy of acquiring works, its collection is made up of 13,000 paintings, photographs or videos ranging from the 13th to the 21st centuries, half of which date from after 1900.
The museum reopened in 2017 after six years of work during which it underwent major expansion and modernization work.