Louvre buys 'core' mediaeval painting for 7.8 million euros
AFP
PARIS- The Louvre museum said Friday it had bought a mediaeval painting by Franco-Dutch artist Jean Malouel hailed as "the core of French painting" for 7.8 million euros (10 million dollars).
"Christ sitting supported by Saint John" was bought after 12 years of negotiations with a secondhand goods dealer in central France, who bought the work from a priest in 1985.
![Louvre buys 'core' mediaeval painting for 7.8 million euros Louvre buys 'core' mediaeval painting for 7.8 million euros](https://en.hdhod.com/photo/art/default/3658612-5358368.jpg?v=1326583797)
"It really is the original core of French painting," he said.
Malouel, known as Jan Maelwael in his native land, was born in the Dutch city of Nijmegen before 1370 and died in the French city of Dijon in 1415. He was the official painter for the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Bold around 1400.
The secondhand goods trader bought the painting, covered in whitewash, from a priest in Vic-le-Comte in 1985.
He paid the local council 2.3 million euros in compensation for it to renounce any possible claim. A French law dating from 1905 transferred ownership of Church property to the State.
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