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[email protected] [email protected] Royal Treasures from the Louvre: Louis XIV to Marie-Antoinette Legion of Honor November 17, 2012–March 17, 2013 San Francisco, September 2012—In the fall of 2012, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s Legion of Honor will present Royal Treasures from the Louvre: Louis XIV to Marie-Antoinette, an unparalleled collection of decorative arts from the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Many of the objects in the exhibition have never been shown in the United States and indeed, several have never left France, including some of the most exquisite treasures of the French monarchy from the time of Louis XIV until the Revolution of 1789. Royal Treasures from the Louvre: Louis XIV to Marie-Antoinette is a dazzling illustration of the story of French royal patronage, displayed for the first time in the United States in this exclusive presentation. One of the greatest treasures of the Louvre, the Gemmes da la Couronne—Louis XIV’s personal collection of hard-stone vases mounted in gold and gemstones—is one of the most significant loans in this exhibition. Made of rare hard-stone—amethyst, agate, amber, jade, and rock crystal—and representing the highest technical achievement, many of these objects were displayed in rooms specifically designed to receive them in the royal apartments at Versailles. “These vases were the height of princely collecting,” notes Martin Chapman, the Fine Arts Museum’s curator of European decorative art. “They’re very precious and very fragile and they’ve only been loaned once before, to the Kremlin in 2004.” As Louis XIV was building his palace at Versailles, he called on his court workshops at the Gobelins manufactory to furnish his new building.