A new Style for Europe

Under the High Patronage of Monsieur Nicolas Sarkozy
President of the French Republic
&
of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany
Professor Dr. Horst Köhler

The Exhibition

The first retrospective ever to be held about the most celebrated cabinetmaker of all time. Within a contextual presentation bringing together his works with highly important paintings, tapestries, bronzes and mounted porcelain, a captivating portrayal of the birth and flowering of a completely new aesthetical universe, which was to become the European model for centuries to come.

Some of the pieces displayed have never before left the museums and private collections which house them, and have in some cases never been seen in public.

More than twenty international institutions
are involved with loans including :
Banque de France, Paris ; Mobilier National, Paris ;
State Hermitage Museum, Saint-Petersburg ;
Victoria & Albert Museum, London ; Baden-Wurtemberg Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten, Bruchsal, ; Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen, Munich ; Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin ;
Hessische Hausstiftung, Eichenzell ; Klassik Stiftung Weimar ; Institut national d'histoire de l'art, Paris ; Kunstbliliothek-Ornamentstichsammlung, Berlin ; Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris ; Musée des Beaux Arts, Agen ; Musée de l’Observatoire, Paris ; Musée du Petit Palais, Paris ; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris ; Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfort ;
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ; Staatliche Münzsammlung, Munich ; Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg ; State Pavlovsk Palace Museum, Saint-Petersbourg ; H.M. Carl XVI Gustaf, Stockholm ; Musée national du château de Versailles et des Trianons, Versailles.

The Museum für Angewandte Kunst building is emblematic of the city of Frankfort ; conceived by Richard Meier in 1985, it is a model which influenced the design of the J. Paul Getty Museum as well as all future creations by the architect.

Founded by Louis XIV in 1662, the Manufacture des Gobelins, which has since become the Mobilier National, will also exhibit the latest works by the most committed contemporary designers, symbols of its continuity of creation.

The scenography will be developed by the architect and designer Juan Pablo Molyneux.

The exhibition will open its doors on 30 October 2009 and will continue until 31 January 2010.

Supported from its beginning by the French and German Ambassadors, the City of Frankfurt and the State of Hessen, the Association Boulle and the French Heritage Society (U.S.A.), it will moreover be prolonged over a period of two years by a cycle of symposiums organised in France, Germany and the United States.

Taking place in the economic centre of Europe, it will, according to the Art Newspaper, be one of the major cultural and artistic events of the moment.