AXA contributes to the gain of the public collections

The Flight into Egypt - (c) D.R

It is official : on July 17 - The Flight into Egypt (1657-1658 ) - Nicolas Poussin's masterpiece will remain in France and be able to join the French public collections. Let's look back over this acquisition, which was made possible thanks to the patronage of a number of French businesses, including AXA.

The Flight into Egypt painted by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) is due to be acquired by the French state for the Louvre Museum. It will then be immediately transferred over to the collections of the Fine Arts Museum in Lyon, the home town of Jacques Sérisier, a contemporary of Nicolas Poussin and in all likelihood the person who commissioned the painting. In this way, the painting will be restored to its natural position as part of the heritage of the Lyon region, which it is historically linked to.

This acquisition will represent a significant addition to France's public collections. For the first time, two museum institutions - the Fine Arts Museum in Lyon and the Louvre Museum - joined forces to raise the funds needed to buy this privately-owned painting and safeguard a masterpiece for national artistic heritage. In this way, around 20 patrons supported this initiative, including the Gaz de France Foundation, AXA, Total, Webhelp and the Mazars Group. The City of Lyon, the Rhône-Alpes Region and many local businesses also provided their support for this acquisition. And last but not least, the Louvre Museum played a key role, injecting own credits.

This contribution confirms the AXA's commitments toward the Louvre Museum and sets up a partnership with a regional museum^[1]. The initiative is up to the Group's patronage policy : preservation and transfer of the cultural patrimony.

Consult the video "2007 Fellowships Ceremony"

[1] For reference, AXA has already partnered two regional fine arts museums (Bordeaux and Caen), supporting the "Splendors of Venice" exhibition in 2005 and 2006.