French city asks Madonna to lend it a painting that is very similar to one that disappeared during World War I

The small town of Amiens, located in the north of France, seeks the American singer Madonna to lend her the work “Diana and Endymion”, Made in 1822 by the French neoclassical painter Jérôme Marin Langlois (1779-1838).

This painting, acquired by the singer in 1989 at auction for $1.3 million, is very similar to a work that was exhibited at the Amiens Museum, which was loaned by the Louvre in Paris. It disappeared near the end of World War I, so it is considered to have been stolen.

Now, the mayor, Brigitte Fouré, “begs” the American singer to “lend” her the painting from her personal collection. The objective would be for the inhabitants of the city to be able to admire this work again in 2028, on the occasion of Amiens’s candidacy as “European Capital of Culture”.

‘Madonna, I heard that you bought a painting a few years ago,’Diana and Endymion‘, a work by Jérome-Martin Langlois (1779-1838)”, declared the mayoress in a video released on Monday on her Facebook page.

“It is probable” that this painting “is a work on loan from the Louvre museum to the Museum of Fine Arts in Amiens before the First World War, and whose trace we lost”, explains the mayoress in that video in French, with English subtitles.

The painting could be a copy of the author himself, according to what Louvre experts ruled at the time, when the painting reappeared in public in the 1980s, decades after its disappearance.

Although the painting is a copy made by Langlois himself, “looks a lot like the work” original, and “I would like the inhabitants of Amiens to be able to see it again”, explains the mayoress.

The work in question has been seen in photographs of the singer’s account on social networks. In any case, some measurements made from them show that they lack three centimeters in height.

The specialists consider that if it were the original work, That part would have been removed to remove the date and the author’s signature.

“Madonna, you probably don’t know Amiens” but “there is a special bond between you and our city”, indicates in her petition the mayoress Fouré.

For her part, the American singer _who this week announced that he will go on a new world music tour_ has not ruled on the subject. (YO)