Overview

A captivating study of Napoleon's plundering of Europe's art for the Louvre, told through the story of a Renaissance masterpiece seized from Venice Plunder recounts the fate of Paolo Veronese's Wedding Feast at Cana, a vast, sublime canvas that the French, under the command of the young Napoleon Bonaparte, tore from a wall of the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, on an island in Venice, in 1797. Painted in 1563 during the Renaissance, the picture was immediately hailed as a masterpiece. In 1801, the Veronese went on exhibition at the Louvre, the new public art museum founded during the Revolution in the former palace of the French kings.As Saltzman tells the larger story of Napoleon's looting of Italian art and its role in the creation of the Louvre, she reveals the contradictions of his character: his thirst for greatness--to carry forward the finest aspects of civilization--and his ruthlessness in getting whatever he sought. After Napoleon's 1815 defeat at Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington and the Allies forced the French to return many of the Louvre's plundered paintings and sculptures. Nevertheless, the Wedding Feast at Cana remains in Paris to this day, hanging directly across from the Mona Lisa.Expertly researched and deftly told, Plunder chronicles one of the most spectacular art appropriation campaigns in history, one that sheds light on a seminal historical figure and the complex origins of one of the great museums of the world.

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Reviews

"A compelling account of the fragility of beauty before avarice. -- ""The Times (London)"" Exposes the rich contradictions of [Napoleon's] 1796 Italian campaign through the story of a prized Venetian masterpiece. -- ""New York Times Book Review"" This fascinating audiobook is a fusion of exceptional writing and an outstanding narration by Suzanne Toren...The level of detail and visual imagery in this audiobook is stunning, and Toren delivers the entirety with a bravura that is uniquely her own. Impeccable pacing, exquisite French, and diverse accents all add depth and clarity to this captivating listen. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award. -- ""AudioFile"" Transcends both art and history and forces us to explore the connections between the two. -- ""Wall Street Journal"""

Author Information

Cynthia Saltzman is the author of Portrait of Dr. Gachet: The Story of a Van Gogh Masterpiece and Old Masters, New World: America's Raid on Europe's Great Pictures. A former reporter for Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, she is the recipient of a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation and has degrees in art history from Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley. Suzanne Toren is an actor who has appeared on and off Broadway, in regional theaters, and occasionally on TV. Over a period of several decades, she has narrated close to 1000 audiobooks for most major publishers. She has received multiple Audie nominations and many industry awards, including Narrator of the Year and Best Voices of the Year. Making beautifully crafted writing come alive is her passion; she is honored and thrilled to have been able to earn a living doing it.

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