Cultural heritage philanthropy: Preserve and pass on
The third and last prong of AXA's approach to philanthropy concerns the preservation and transmission of our cultural heritage. The aim of every initiative undertaken in this area is to preserve or restore works of art, build up national museum collections, or expose a wider public audience to art and culture.
Acquisition of national treasures
Earthware floor tiles from the château de Polisy
This national treasure, with no known equivalent, is remarkable for its size, covering some 28 square meters, its state of conservation, the quality of itsdesign and the variety of its colors. The model is Italian, probably supplied by the architect Sebastiano Serlio, and the production French, by a studio from the Champagne region. Created in 1545, this highly rare piece represents an exceptional testimony to the history of ceramics and the spread of earthenware in France, emblematic of the artistic ties between France and Italy in the middle of the 16th century. With the acquisition of this remarkable piece, the AXA Group is making it possible to further strengthen a series of works that are particularly representative of European ceramics of the time, exhibited in the National Renaissance Museum at Château d'Ecouen. As the only French establishment dedicated exclusively to the Renaissance, Château d'Ecouen is able, thanks to its outstanding range of collections, to offer a complete vision of European artistic profusion between the 15th and 17th centuries.
Visit the National Renaissance Museum at Château d'Ecouen website: http://www.musee-renaissance.fr/
Rosso Fiorentino engravings (Musée du Louvre, Paris, France)
Two sanguine heightened sketches, "Saint Roch distributing his goods to the poor" and "The Visitation," both by Rosso Fiorentino (Florence, 1494 - Fontainebleau, 1540) were added to the Louvre's permanent collection in October of 2003. These are the first sketches of religious inspiration from the Fontainebleau School to enter the Louvre.
Dogon Statue (Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France)
The wooden statue is considered to be a masterpiece of African art. The work's size (almost two meters high), beauty and age (tenth or eleventh century) make it a truly remarkable piece. It will be exhibited at the Musée du Quai Branly, which is scheduled to open in 2006 with works representing the art and civilization of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.
"La Vestale" from Jean-Antoine Houdon (Musée du Louvre, Paris - France)
In March 2005, AXA offered to Le Louvre museum a magnificent "Vestale" from Jean-Antoine Houdon. This dated and signed, 1:1 scale marble statue, sculpted in 1787, depicts a hunter priestess guarding the flame dedicated to the goddess Vesta. This outstanding exercise in virtuosity is a modern take on an antique original. "La Vestale" finds its place admirably in the Louvre museum's Sculpture Department collection.
Ingres' "The portrait of the Duke of Orleans" (Musée du Louvre, Paris - France)
Few of Ingres' major paintings were absent from the Louvre. Only two of his most important portraits were still held in private collections. This masterpiece which has joined the Louvre in 2006, is one of four great "royal" portraits by Ingres, including two of Napoleon Bonaparte and one of Charles X. It is one of the most accomplished, balanced and skillful portraits of 19th century painting.
Nicolas Poussin's "La fuite en Egypte" (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France)
The acquisition of this painting will represent a significant addition to France's public collections. For the first time, two museum institutions - the Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon and the Musée du Louvre - 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 AXA, the Gaz de France Foundation,Total, Webhelp and the Mazars Group. And that's not all: the City of Lyons, the Rhône-Alpes Region and many businesses from the Lyons region also provided their support for this acquisition. And last but not least, the Louvre Museum played a key role. With this operation, AXA has once again delivered on its commitment to support the Louvre Museum, while setting up a wonderful partnership with a regional museum.
Restoring works of art
The AXA Art Research Grant with the Tate Modern in London
AXA Art, the AXA Group subsidiary dedicated to insuring works of art, partners with prestigious institutions in the interest of advancing research and a better understanding of the materials used to create works of art. From 2006 to 2009, AXA Art will finance the research of a team of scientists from the Tate Modern, a renowned museum of contemporary art in London, on the evolution and treatment of contemporary acrylic paintings.
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Cultural heritage philanthropy
Belgium
In Belgium, AXA is involved in many artistic events, the Group supports classical concerts ( « Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition", "Nuit musicale de Beloeil") and exhibitions ( "Europalia", "Precolombian work"...).
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"AXA Art, partner of the Louvre - Atlanta project"
As part of an exceptional three-year partnership between Atlanta's High Museum of Art and the Paris Musée du Louvre, it will be possible to admire, in many cases for the first time, a number of works of art at Atlanta's museum. Between 2006 and 2009, paintings, sculptures and various antiquities from the Louvre collection, by artists as remarkable as Raphael, Poussin, Rembrandt, Velasquez or Houdon, will be on display in Atlanta. AXA Art, the world's leading insurer of artwork and collectibles, is proud to be the principal partner in this exceptional project.
World heritage
Beginning in 2005, AXA was an early supporter of a new international program developed by the NGO Vocations Patrimoine in partnership with the UNESCO World Heritage Center and Mazars. The program seeks to protect the world's heritage, in connection with the broader aim of sustainable cultural and economic development. It covers two areas that overlap with AXA's approach to philanthropy: education and heritage. The program offers academic grants to further the education and training of the future conservators/preservationists of UNESCO's world heritage sites and supports them in their projects to preserve, enhance and economically develop a site and its environment in accordance with the values that led to its inclusion on the World Heritage protected site list. In 2006, AXA enabled three laureates to study projects in China, India and Japan.
On November 5, 2007, the second series of UNESCO-Vocations Patrimoine grants were awarded in Paris in the presence of the two founding partners, AXA and Mazars.
Here are the profiles and research programs for the four students that AXA will be supporting this year:
- Gonzalo Banda-Cruz (Ecuador), University College Dublin, Ireland
Project: comparative study into the management of protected areas in the Galapagos and the Channel Islands National Park in the US; - Giuseppe Ciambrone (Italy), University College Dublin, Ireland
Project: study into the management of the Palais Royal de Caserte and its gardens dating back to the 18th century, the Vanvitelli aqueduct and the San Leucio belvedere, in the Campanie region in southern Italy; - Rusudan Mirzikashvili (Georgia), University College Dublin, Ireland
Project: comparative study into the global heritage conservation in Georgia through Mtskheta's historic monuments and the sites in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia; - Sophie Eberhardt (France), University College Dublin, Ireland
Project: accompanying the organization of the new association for French world heritage sites (Association des Biens Français du Patrimoine Mondial), notably facilitating the permanent exchange of knowledge and experience.
For reference, out of the list of 851 designated sites, 30 have been declared in danger. More specifically, the development of tourism, real estate pressures in towns and cities, and global warming are making more effective site management a necessity. The specific training programs supported by the site management program represent the first created in order to act in this area and bring about change.