Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Encyclopedia
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (myze daʁ mɔdɛʁn də la vil də paʁi, Paris Museum of Modern Art) is the City of Paris Museum of Modern Art dedicated to the arts of the 20th/21st centuries. It is located at 11 Avenue du Président Wilson
in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
and constructed for the International Exhibition of Arts and Technology of 1937
, the museum was inaugurated in 1961. The museum collections include over 8000 works illustrating various trends of the art of the 20th century. Exhibitions on the major movements and artists highlights from the European scene of the 20th century, but also monographic and thematic exhibitions present the main trends of today's art. Temporary exhibitions run every six weeks.
, Henri Matisse
, Raoul Dufy
, Maurice de Vlaminck
, Georges Rouault
, Fernand Léger
, Georges Braque
, Francis Picabia
, Amedeo Modigliani
, Giorgio de Chirico
, Kees van Dongen
, Pierre Bonnard
, Chaïm Soutine
, André Derain
, Suzanne Valadon
, Maurice Utrillo
, Robert
and Sonia Delaunay
, František Kupka
, Juan Gris
, Hans Bellmer
, René Iché
, Jean Fautrier
, Jean Arp
, Alberto Giacometti
, Yves Klein
, Pierre Soulages
.
(The Pigeon with the Peas) by Pablo Picasso
, La Pastorale by Henri Matisse
, L'Olivier Près de l'Estaque (Olive Tree near Estaque) by Georges Braque
, La Femme à l'Éventail (Woman with a Fan) by Amedeo Modigliani
and Nature Morte aux Chandeliers (Still Life with Chandeliers) by Fernand Léger
and were valued at ( ). A window had been smashed and CCTV footage showed a masked man taking the paintings. Authorities believe the thief acted alone. The man carefully removed the paintings from their frames, which he left behind.
The theft is being investigated by the Brigade de Répression du Banditisme
specialist unit of the French Police. It is unclear why the alarm systems in the museum failed to detect the robbery, staff only noticing when they arrived at the museum just before . The museum closed on 20 May 2010, citing "technical reasons". The theft follows the $162 million heist of masterpieces by Cezanne, Degas, Van Gogh and Monet from Foundation E.G. Bührle
in Zurich
in February 2008 and could be one of the biggest art thefts in history (by value). It has been described as the "heist of the century". The French auctioneer and president of the Association du Palais de Tokyo, Pierre Cornette de Saint-Cyr, commented "These five paintings are un-sellable, so thieves, sirs, you are imbeciles, now return them."
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
Description
Located in the eastern wing of the Palais de TokyoPalais de Tokyo
The Palais de Tokyo is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, near the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs the City of Paris and hosts the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris...
and constructed for the International Exhibition of Arts and Technology of 1937
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937)
The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne was held from May 25 to November 25, 1937 in Paris, France...
, the museum was inaugurated in 1961. The museum collections include over 8000 works illustrating various trends of the art of the 20th century. Exhibitions on the major movements and artists highlights from the European scene of the 20th century, but also monographic and thematic exhibitions present the main trends of today's art. Temporary exhibitions run every six weeks.
Collections
The museum collections include, among others, works by Pablo PicassoPablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
, Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy[p] was a French Fauvist painter. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textiles, as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted for scenes of open-air social events...
, Maurice de Vlaminck
Maurice de Vlaminck
Maurice de Vlaminck was a French painter. Along with André Derain and Henri Matisse he is considered one of the principal figures in the Fauve movement, a group of modern artists who from 1904 to 1908 were united in their use of intense color.-Life:Maurice de Vlaminck was born in Paris to a family...
, Georges Rouault
Georges Rouault
Georges Henri Rouault[p] was a French Fauvist and Expressionist painter, and printmaker in lithography and etching.-Childhood and education:Rouault was born in Paris into a poor family...
, Fernand Léger
Fernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...
, Georges Braque
Georges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
, Francis Picabia
Francis Picabia
Francis Picabia was a French painter, poet, and typographist, associated with both the Dada and Surrealist art movements.- Early life :...
, Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
, Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico was a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Italian painter born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. He founded the scuola metafisica art movement...
, Kees van Dongen
Kees van Dongen
Cornelis Theodorus Maria van Dongen , usually known as Kees van Dongen or just Van Dongen, was a Dutch painter and one of the Fauves. He gained a reputation for his sensuous, at times garish, portraits....
, Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker, as well as a founding member of Les Nabis.-Biography:...
, Chaïm Soutine
Chaim Soutine
Chaïm Soutine was a Jewish painter from Belarus. Soutine made a major contribution to the expressionist movement while living in Paris....
, André Derain
André Derain
André Derain was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse.-Early years:...
, Suzanne Valadon
Suzanne Valadon
Suzanne Valadon was a French painter born Marie-Clémentine Valadon at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts...
, Maurice Utrillo
Maurice Utrillo
Maurice Utrillo, , born Maurice Valadon, was a French painter who specialized in cityscapes. Born in the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous painters of Montmartre who were born there....
, Robert
Robert Delaunay
Robert Delaunay was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstract, reminiscent of Paul Klee...
and Sonia Delaunay
Sonia Delaunay
Sonia Delaunay was a Jewish-French artist who, with her husband Robert Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. Her work extends to painting, textile design and stage set design...
, František Kupka
František Kupka
František Kupka was a Czech painter and graphic artist. He was a pioneer and co-founder of the early phases of the abstract art movement and Orphic cubism...
, Juan Gris
Juan Gris
José Victoriano González-Pérez , better known as Juan Gris, was a Spanish painter and sculptor who lived and worked in France most of his life...
, Hans Bellmer
Hans Bellmer
Hans Bellmer was a German artist, best known for the life-sized pubescent female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. Historians of art and photography also consider him a Surrealist photographer.-Biography:...
, René Iché
René Iché
For the town in Morocco see Iche, MoroccoRené Iché was a 20th century French sculptor.-Life and work:...
, Jean Fautrier
Jean Fautrier
Jean Fautrier was a French painter and sculptor. He was one of the most important practitioners of Tachisme.He was born in Paris. Given his unwed mother's surname, he was raised by his grandmother until her death in 1908, when he went to live with his mother in London.In 1912 he studied at the...
, Jean Arp
Jean Arp
Jean Arp / Hans Arp was a German-French, or Alsatian, sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist in other media such as torn and pasted paper....
, Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draughtsman, and printmaker.Alberto Giacometti was born in the canton Graubünden's southerly alpine valley Val Bregaglia and came from an artistic background; his father, Giovanni, was a well-known post-Impressionist painter...
, Yves Klein
Yves Klein
Yves Klein was a French artist considered an important figure in post-war European art. He is the leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by the art critic Pierre Restany...
, Pierre Soulages
Pierre Soulages
Pierre Soulages is a French painter, engraver, and sculptor.-Biography:Born in Rodez in 1919, Soulages also is known as "the painter of black" because of his interest in the colour, "...both a colour and a non-colour. When light is reflected on black, it transforms and transmutes it. It opens up...
.
Exhibition (Samples)
- 1998 Gregor SchneiderGregor schneiderGregor Schneider is a German artist, whose main area of work is constructed rooms. In 2001, he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for his infamous work Totes Haus u r exhibited at the German Pavilion....
: La maison morte u r 1985–1998 - From 15 October 2010 to 30 January 2011 the Museum will host a retrospective of the work of New York painter Jean-Michel BasquiatJean-Michel BasquiatJean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist. His career in art began as a graffiti artist in New York City in the late 1970s, and in the 1980s produced Neo-expressionist painting.-Early life:...
.
2010 theft
On 20 May 2010, the museum reported the overnight theft of five paintings from its collection. The paintings taken were Le pigeon aux petits poisLe pigeon aux petits pois
Le pigeon aux petit pois is a 1911 painting by Pablo Picasso. It was one of five paintings stolen from the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris on 20 May 2010, which together are worth about €100 million ....
(The Pigeon with the Peas) by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, La Pastorale by Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
, L'Olivier Près de l'Estaque (Olive Tree near Estaque) by Georges Braque
Georges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
, La Femme à l'Éventail (Woman with a Fan) by Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
and Nature Morte aux Chandeliers (Still Life with Chandeliers) by Fernand Léger
Fernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...
and were valued at ( ). A window had been smashed and CCTV footage showed a masked man taking the paintings. Authorities believe the thief acted alone. The man carefully removed the paintings from their frames, which he left behind.
The theft is being investigated by the Brigade de Répression du Banditisme
Brigade de répression du banditisme
The Brigade de Répression du Banditisme of Paris is an elite special police unit of the French Ministry of the Interior . It is in charge of armed robberies, burglaries and scams, and art thefts...
specialist unit of the French Police. It is unclear why the alarm systems in the museum failed to detect the robbery, staff only noticing when they arrived at the museum just before . The museum closed on 20 May 2010, citing "technical reasons". The theft follows the $162 million heist of masterpieces by Cezanne, Degas, Van Gogh and Monet from Foundation E.G. Bührle
Foundation E.G. Bührle
The Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection was established by the Bührle family in Zürich, Switzerland to bring to public viewing Emil Georg Bührle's important collection of European sculptures and paintings...
in Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
in February 2008 and could be one of the biggest art thefts in history (by value). It has been described as the "heist of the century". The French auctioneer and president of the Association du Palais de Tokyo, Pierre Cornette de Saint-Cyr, commented "These five paintings are un-sellable, so thieves, sirs, you are imbeciles, now return them."