Model of the obelisk of the Temple of Amun at Luxor, walnut, ca 1840, H 75 cm

拍品描述

Model of the obelisk of the Temple of Amun at Luxor, walnut, ca 1840, H 75 cm Carved walnut obelisk model, depicting that of the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France, circa 1840. The Obelisk of Luxor is an obelisk originally from the Temple of Amun at Luxor in Egypt, which has stood in the centre of the Place de la Concorde in Paris since 1836. The obelisk of Luxor was classified as a historical monument in 1937. Given that its manufacture dates back to the ancient Egyptian civilisation, it is the oldest monument in Paris, predating the capital's founding. It was Mehemet Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, as a sign of goodwill, who, with the agreement of Baron Taylor and then Jean-François Champollion, offered Charles X and France in early 1830 the two obelisks erected in front of the Luxor temple, but only the one on the right (looking at the temple) was pulled down and transported to France. President François Mitterrand officially announced on September 26, 1981, that France was definitively renouncing possession of the second obelisk, which had remained there, thereby restoring it to Egypt. In exchange for the obelisks, Louis-Philippe I offered in 1845 a copper clock which today adorns the citadel of Cairo, but which, for the record, almost never worked, at least according to the people of Cairo, having probably been damaged upon delivery.