Courrier International: An exceptional 17th century painting hidden in a Parisian boutique

This 17th century painting was discovered during work for the Oscar de la Renta boutique in Paris. Julien Mignot/The New York Times.

During work, workers discovered a painting executed under Louis XIV, The New York Times reported. Six meters long, the painting was hidden behind a wooden panel in Parisian offices being transformed for the boutique of fashion designer Oscar de la Renta.

The new American luxury boutique was due to open this week for paris fashion shows, but Oscar de la Renta’s general manager, Alex Bolen, was forced to change his plans, Reports The New York Times.

Last summer, Nathalie Ryan, the architect in charge of the works, announced by telephone that he had made “a discovery” that he had to come and see for himself in Paris. On the second floor of the building of the future store in the middle of construction, Alex Bolen discovers at the bottom of the room an oil painting of three meters by six meters depicting a French nobleman, on horseback, surrounded by courtiers entering Jerusalem.

“It’s very rare and exceptional in many ways,” Benoît Janson, who oversees the restoration of the work, told the New York Times, “by its historical and aesthetic quality as well as its size.”

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