Bernard Arnault Funds €43M Caillebotte Purchase for Musée d'Orsay

LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault has financed the French state's acquisition of Gustave Caillebotte's 1877 painting 'Partie de bateau' for €43 million. The work, sold by the artist's heirs, will enter the collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. According to Jean-Paul Claverie, Arnault's adviser, the painting was among the few major Caillebotte works still in private hands. The acquisition marks the second major Caillebotte painting to enter a museum in two years, following the Getty Museum's purchase of 'Jeune homme à sa fenêtre' for $53 million in November 2021. The French Ministry of Culture announced the painting will be exhibited across France next year for the 150th anniversary of Impressionism, with a major Caillebotte retrospective scheduled for autumn 2024. Arnault's group, which generated nearly €80 billion in revenue in 2022 across 75 luxury brands, has previously supported the Musée d'Orsay's exhibition program, including a 2012 show on Impressionism and fashion. Caillebotte's estate donated about 40 Impressionist works to France upon his death in 1894, including Renoir's 'Bal du moulin de la Galette' and works by Monet and Pissarro.