Bordeaux Museum of Fine Arts.
Eugene Delacroix’s iconic 1826 oil painting “Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi” will travel to Greece in April for the first time since its creation, marking the 200th anniversary of the heroic Exodus of Messolonghi’s besieged defenders.
The work, considered the Bordeaux Museum of Fine Arts’ equivalent of the Mona Lisa, rarely leaves its home. Its last loan was in 2018, for a major Delacroix retrospective at the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Museum director Sophie Barthelemy said the decision to make an exception came after a 2021 visit to Greece, where she saw reproductions of the painting displayed widely. “I said to myself that for this anniversary year, we will make an exception,” she said.
The painting will be displayed at the Xenokrateion Archaeological Museum in Messolonghi.