The Louvre museum is making a bold fashion statement with its “LOUVRE COUTURE. Objets d’art, objets de mode” exhibition, which “offers a striking and unprecedented dialogue between masterpieces from the museum’s Objets d’art department and key piece from the history of contemporary fashion, from the 1960s to 2025, from Cristóbal Balenciaga to Iris van Herpen.”
For the first time, forty-five of the most emblematic fashion houses and designers from around the world have made remarkable loans, with pieces from the likes of Dolce&Gabbana, Vivienne Westwood, Prada and Versace, as well as French designers Alaïa, Jean Paul Gaultier, Christian Louboutin and Givenchy, all providing outfits for display.
A television series set almost exclusively in the world of museums, artists and art historians would not usually make a primetime slot in France. But add art-based crime, cunning detective work and plenty of romance to the mix and you have a hit drama – which is why L’Art du Crime has just begun its eighth series on France 2.
The series, which has been filmed in places such as the Louvre, features a former police officer in the brigade criminelle, and an art historian, who together lead investigations for France’s Central Office for the Fight against Illicit Traffic in Cultural Goods (OCBC).
Each tale is told over two episodes, with the enigma at the centre of each case being a work of art. The new series sees our intrepid investigators head to Château de Chantilly.
Patrice Schmidt / RMN-GP
Art: The year of Cézanne
Those who admire the work of Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne are in for a treat this year as his home town of Aix-en-Provence lays on a raft of special exhibitions and art trails. The highlight is ‘Cézanne au Jas de Bouffan’ summer exhibition at the Musée Granet, featuring works painted at the family home between 1860 and 1899. “The retrospective showcases a hundred pieces illustrating just how much the house influenced his art.
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It presents Cézanne’s favourite themes: Provençal landscapes, self-portraits, the famous bathers and still lifes in oil and watercolour,” says the museum.
Among the masterpieces include The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter; Bather and the Rocks; Game of Hide and Seek (based on Lancret); and Self-Portrait in Front of a Pink Background.
French cinema’s glittering annual awards ceremony was this year held at L’Olympia in Paris and presided over by Catherine Deneuve (who dedicated the evening ‘to Ukraine’), seven awards were handed out by the jury.
Jacques Audiard – best known for his gritty 2009 thriller A Prophet – claimed the prize for best film for his musical Emilia Perez. He also won best director. Karim Leklou won best actor for Le Roman de Jim and Hafsia Herzi won best actress for her role in Borgo, while there were also prizes for best newcomers and best supporting actors.
As is tradition, a major Hollywood figure was in attendance, to be presented with a César d’honneur for lifetime achievement – this year’s recipient was actress Julia Roberts, who told the audience “I’m very lucky, because today my life is a dream”.
