Madonna's David

Never mind all the trillions of articles that are no doubt being prepared even as you read this, about who is having what. All I want to know is who is going to keep Jacques Louis David's portrait of Napoleon?

This is an example of the great man's work (no, I don't mean Mr Ritchie)


I've been thinking about what you would do if you were lucky enough to own a famous painting. Would you get a copy to keep on display in your home and keep the real thing in a vault somewhere? Would you just decide to put the David in one of your many rooms and hope that word did not get around that there was a valuable painting in your home? Would you ever look at it, really study it, apart from the first few minutes after the dealer delivered it, whilst you decided where it woud be hung?

I suppose that with all the things that this fancy couple own a painting from the time of the Enlightenment would be one of the last things on the agenda for disposal. A painting from the hand of the 'official painter' of the French Revolution, a portrait of Napoleon no less. Oh, I wish it were mine.