Mayor of Amiens asks for Madonna to loan the city a Jérôme-Martin Langlois painting lost in First World War

Yesterday (16 January) on Facebook, the Mayor of Amiens, Brigitte Fouré, shared a video message addressed to Madonna asking if she will lend them a Jérôme-Martin Langlois painting that she bought a few years ago, which was in the Amiens museum before the First World War, due to being candidates for the European Capital of Culture in 2028.

Fouré said in the video, "I learned that you had bought a painting, Diana and Endymion, a work of art by Jérôme-Martin Langlois a few years ago. And this painting is probably a painting that had been lent by the Louvre to the Amiens museum before the First World War, and of which we had then lost track."

"So obviously, we don't dispute in any way the legal acquisition that you made of this work," Fouré continued. "But be aware that, we are candidates to be the European Capital of Culture in 2028. So I would like if, on this occasion, in 2028, you could lend us your painting, so that the inhabitants can rediscover this work and enjoy it."

According to the video post, a recent article in Le Figaro allowed them to "discover that the painting deposited before the Great War at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Amiens, which has since become the Musée de Picardie, and disappeared after an episode of bombardments could have been found in the United States. United in the personal collection of the famous singer Madonna."