Michel Lacoste’s donation to the musée du LouvrePrecious metalwork from Pierre Mangot to Jean-Élisée Puiforcat

Thanks to the generosity of Michel Lacoste, a hundred precious metalwork pieces entered the collection of the Musée du Louvre in November 2025 through a planned donation of present assets. These varied artworks demonstrate the technical skill and refinement that characterised precious metalworks in France from the 16th to the 18th century. Over the course of six months, an exceptional exhibition in room 605 of the Department of Decorative Arts will present them alongside the Louvre’s collection of silver- and ceramic ware.

These hundred works represent about a quarter of the collection amassed since the 2000s by Michel Lacoste, whose passion for precious metalwork was initiated by his maternal grandmother’s gift of the Puiforcat collection sales catalogue. Planned in 1955, this major auction never occurred, as the Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos purchased a vast majority of the lots on offer to deed them subject to usufruct to the Musée du Louvre. Now wishing to share his passion for this type of artwork with the general public, to gift these pieces to future generations and to do his part in enriching the national collections, Michel Lacoste is giving part of his collection to the Musée du Louvre. This choice appeared as evident as the museum is home to the majority of the Puiforcat collection.

Of the hundred pieces, one is from the 16th century, 22 from the 17th, 76 from the 18th and one from the 20th. This gift comes to significantly increase the 17th century collection, supplementing it with pieces both from Paris and other French regions, and brings into the museum several master metalworkers such as Jean-Baptiste Chéret, Pierre-François Bonnestrenne and Joseph-Théodore Vancombert for the first time, while completing the existing opus of some of the great master such as Nicolas Delaunay, Claude II Ballin, François-Thomas Germain and Jacques-Nicolas Roëttiers, to cite but a few.

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Exhibition curator

Anne Foray-Carlier, Senior Heritage Curator, Department of Decorative Arts.