Establishing the Palace of Versailles Collections

EVENT DESCRIPTION

On Versailles Collections : How were the collections of the Château de Versailles built up ?

In the midst of the Revolution, on the morning of 6th October 1789, the royal family was forced to leave Versailles and never to return. After the fall of the Monarchy in 1792, the whole content of the palace was moved out, the art works taken to Paris, and almost all furniture sold at auction.

Therefore, it is an empty palace that king Louis-Philippe turned in the 1830’s into a museum, devoted to All the Glories of France. He first goal was to gather series of paintings and sculptures evoquing great moments and people of French History since the Middle Ages in new galleries created instead of the former princely appartments.

It is only in the 20th Century that a new vision was implemented for the palace of Versailles, with the restoration or recreation of former royal appartments and their refurnishing, dramatically changing the nature of collections collected and displayed.

Speaker: Bertrand Rondot,  Chief Curator, Palace of Versailles