Auctioned for $1.3 million to Madonna in 1989, an art conservator saw the monumental work in a photograph of her home published in Paris Match magazine

The 19th-century artist Jerome-Martin Langlois' work "Diane and Endymion" is "probably" the same "that was loaned from the Louvre to the Amiens Museum of Fine Arts before World War I and then disappeared," said Brigitte Foure in a video message posted on Facebook to the Queen of Pop. "Obviously, , we are in no way questioning the legal acquisition that you made of this work," Foure added. Instead, he asked the singer for a "loan" to exhibit in 2028,

When Amiens hopes to become European Capital of Culture that year. Lending the picture would "allow residents to discover and enjoy this work," the mayor said.The possible provenance of the painting was suggested by the newspaper Le Figaro in an investigation published this month. Auctioned to Madonna in 1989 for $1.3 million, an art conservator saw the monumental work in a photograph of her home published in Paris Match magazine.

It shows a mythological scene of the bare-breasted goddess Diana approaching the shepherd Endymion. people from Amiens to see him again," said Foure.Langlois' original work was commissioned in 1817 to decorate the royal palace of Versailles on the outskirts of Paris, said Francois Seguin, acting director of the Picardy Museum, formerly the Amiens Museum of Fine Arts. It was on loan from the Louvre Museum in Paris, north of the city, from 1872 until it was declared lost after the First World War. The Madonna painting "is almost certainly a copy, most likely by the artist himself,"

The Louvre said when it exhibited the painting in 1988. His version lacks the artist's signature, the painting's date and seal, and is about 3 centimeters smaller than the original, so it's "not very likely" to be the same work, expert Seguin said. Post a commentHowever, "it's the only evidence of lost work," he added.