Publication details
‘Basically, he already bought it.' Paris 1925–26 and the battle for Manet's Bar: More than just finances?
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| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Citation | |
| Description | This chapter returns to one of the most thrilling yet almost undiscussed moments in the history of the modern art market. A few months in the winter of 1925–26 definitively decided the future of the iconic painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergere (1882) by Édouard Manet, and specically the fact that today millions of visitors per year travel not to the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, U.S.A., but to the Courtauld Gallery in London, to see this masterpiece. Thanks to newly discovered local archive records, the events will be considered through the eyes of a minor Central European participant in this boisterous international battle - Czech aesthetician, art historian, modern art critic settled in Paris, Václav Nebeský (1889–1949). In that way, this study aspires to contribute not only to the research on the provenance and mobility history of this artwork but, importantly, to the discussion on the period role of minor agents with limited business capital. It thus reflects on the role of non-financial tools, their negotiating and persuasive power and limits. |
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