Chagall engraving seized at French- Swiss border finally on display after 20 years in storage

A Chagall painting that had been forgotten for twenty years in a warehouse is now on display at the museum Keystone-SDA

Forgotten for twenty years in a customs warehouse, an engraving by Marc Chagall has finally found its place in a French museum. “The Acrobat with the Violin”, created in 1924, will be on display from September at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Besançon.

The story dates back to 2006, when the French authorities intercepted a lorry carrying several works of art near the Swiss border. Among them were the Chagall engraving and a drawing produced in 1959 by the sculptor and painter Ossip Zadkine.

The two works were seized because they did not have the necessary authorisations to leave French territory. The two hauliers were arrested and subsequently fined for concealing the works. Following this seizure, however, the fate of the two pieces was forgotten. Owing to the complexity of the administrative procedures, they remained abandoned on the shelves of a warehouse for nearly twenty years, until the situation was finally resolved.

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Customs has now formalised the donation of the Chagall engraving to the museum in Besançon, where it will be on public display from September. Part of an edition of 150 prints, the work is valued at several thousand euros, but it represents a major acquisition for the institution. It is, in fact, the first work by Marc Chagall to be included in the museum’s collections.

Chagall’s dreamlike and surrealist world

The print brings together several iconographic elements typical of the Franco-Russian artist: a man balancing on a violin, a chicken hanging upside down, an animal resembling a goat that appears to be playing the instrument and, amongst the details, a small Star of David. A dreamlike and surreal world that characterises much of Chagall’s work.

“Chagall’s style is instantly recognisable, with this dreamlike world that is deeply detached from reality,” explained Maël Vandewalle, curator of the Besançon Museum, who also helped to authenticate the work.

The town’s mayor, Ludovic Fagaut, also expressed his satisfaction, thanking the customs service for this gesture, which he described as a “true honour” for the museum.

The second work seized in 2006 has also found a new home: Ossip Zadkine’s drawing of a man playing the guitar has been donated to the Zadkine Museum in Paris.

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Translated from French, reviewed by an English Department journalist.