Pop star Madonna has been asked by the mayor of the French city of Amiens to temporarily return a painting she purchased at an auction years ago.
Pointing out that she does not dispute the legality of Madonna’s acquisition – Madonna bought it at an auction in 1989 for $1.3 million – the mayor, Brigitte Foure, asked the singer to lend the painting to Amiens for an exhibit in 2028, the year the city intends to vie for the title of the European Capital of Culture.
Foure suggested in a video shared on social media that the painting - which depicts Roman Goddess Diana and shepherd Endymion - may be the work of French neoclassical painter Jerome-Martin Langlois and created in the early 19th century.
However, it seems unclear whether Madonna's copy is the original or a replica.
Originally commissioned by French King Louis XVIII, the original painting was displayed in the Louvre before being loaned to the Fine Art Museum in Amiens in 1872. It was later declared missing during World War I.
The mayor did admit that she is not certain whether the singer's version is “the actual painting" or a copy, but noted that the artwork in question appears “extremely similar” to the original, and that she would like “the people of Amiens to be able to see it again."
The painting Madonna purchased was previously exhibited at the Louvre in 1988, with the museum suggesting at the time that it "is almost certainly a copy, most likely by the artist himself," one media outlet noted.
Francois Seguin, acting director of the Museum of Picardy, also reportedly observed that the painting appears to be smaller than the original by 3 centimeters and that it lacks the author’s signature, stamp and the date of the work.
He did note, however, that the painting is “the only evidence of the work that was lost."