Buried Treasure

To Germain Bazin, chief curator of the Louvre, it had been a most unpleasant year. Week after week the press would speak accusingly of the Louvre's "attics," its "cellars" and its "obscure prisons." In these sealed-off rooms, charged the critics, hundreds of masterpieces had lain "buried" to Frenchmen for years. Bazin protested that no museum has room enough to exhibit all its treasures, but there was no silencing the critics. Cried the indignant weekly Arts magazine: "We want to know our national patrimony!"

So emotional did the controversy become that Novelist Andre Malraux himself, the cultural grand panjandrum of De Gaulle's Fifth Republic, solemnly promised the National Assembly that the treasures would be "brought out" some time in 1960. But where should they be exhibited? Malraux thought of the new industrial exhibition hall in the suburb of Puteaux, but the hall was obviously too far away for most Parisians. Next he thought of Paris' Grand Palais, but the Palais, which usually features automobile shows, household arts exhibits and the like, had had too many fires. Finally, Malraux hit upon a solution: put on the show in the Louvre itself.

Last week Parisians swarmed into seven big galleries, freshly painted and refurbished with special funds from the Assembly, to view 700 works, few of which had ever been seen by the present generation. Covering the walls almost from floor to ceiling, the paintings ranged in time from a superb 14th century primitive (The Flagellation of Christ) through the works of Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Tintoretto, Vermeer, Fragonard, Rubens and Van Dyck, and on down to 1800. When Paris finally digests this show, another lot from the buried reserves, which som officials estimate to number as many a 2,000 items, will be put on display. And this month 22 new rooms at the Louvre will be opened up, after having been closed for 15 years for lack of funds Exulted France-Soir last week: "Ther is no more mystery at the Louvre. The Louvre is in the process of becoming a living museum." Sighed a relieved Curator Bazin: "The future beams more serene."

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