In March of last year an iconic piece of Revolutionary history went under the hammer when the Versailles auction house Osenat offered for sale the original manuscript of Robespierre's famous letter of 5th February 1793 to Danton. Heavy with the resonances of betrayal to come, Robespierre offers his condolences for the death of Danton's wife and expresses his friendship and love "even unto death".
ROBESPIERRE (Maximilien de). Autograph letter... - Lot 18 - Osenat
Oeuvres de Maximilien Robespierre, vol.III-1, p.160.
https://archive.org/details/oeuvrescomplte03robe/page/160/mode/2up?view=theater
On 12th March the letter, which came onto the market following the closure of the Musée des manuscrits de Paris, sold to a private buyer for €218,750. This was in line with the high end of the estimate of between €100,000 and €200,000. There was a belated flurry of surprise when the French government declined to exercise its right of pre-emption. Le Monde published a joint protest by an impressive roll-call of historians, politicians and other public figures: "The preservation of the only letter from Robespierre to Danton is a national cause" it stated, and characterised the letter as "a slice of the history of the birth of the Republic" . All to no avail: on 11th April of this year the French Minister of Culture issued a formal statement defending the State's decision on the basis that the letter was not perceived to "possess enough unique historical importance to justify the expense"(!)
Are they saving up for more chairs, perhaps?
To the outside observer, all this smacks of political manoeuvring. It is true that the content of the letter has long been known to scholars but everyone concerned is well aware of the letter's symbolic value, given the cultural weight of the duel between Robespierre and Danton. In a Radio France interview in 2023 the historian Loris Chavanette, author of Danton et Robespierre: le choc de la Révolution (2021) expressed his surprise that no-one had come forward prior to the sale. There had been no response from the academic community, in particular the Société des Études Robespierristes, which had campaigned so energetically in 2015 for the retention of the Le Bas manuscripts; the letter could well have featured in the new museum proposed for the Maison Robespierre in Arras. In Chavanette's opinion, the silence reflected a "sort of embarrassment" in left-wing circles over Robespierre's fraternal tone and fulsome sentiments: "academics perhaps find that this letter accuses Robespierre, who says "I love you" to Danton, when only a few weeks later he will send him to the scaffold".
References
https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2023/03/21/la-preservationde-l-unique-lettre-de-robespierre-a-danton-est-une-cause-nationale_6166388_3232.html
https://en.artmediaagency.com/f49f01998fd69964c43a9b0ae5568f94
_____, "L’État aurait-il dû acquérir l’unique lettre de Robespierre à Danton?" (radiofrance.fr)
Affaire en cours podcast, 31/03/2023 (6 mins)
https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/affaire-en-cours/l-etat-aurait-il-du-acquerir-l-unique-lettre-de-robespierre-a-danton-8902885
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