# How a Museum Actually Acquires a Work > The export bar gets the headlines. The acquisition is a four-stage machine: curatorial case, provenance check, trustee vote, assembled money. The Louvre's Cimabue shows each one. > The Study - 2026-08-02 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/study/how-a-museum-actually-acquires-a-work/ ## Key points - The Louvre's own catalogue record dates the Cimabue purchase precisely: acquisition commission 12 April 2023, inventory 25 October 2023, announcement 3 November 2023. - The Senlis hammer price was EUR 19.5m; the figure of EUR 24.18m that circulated as the painting's value was the premium-inclusive total. - French law gives the state thirty months after refusing an export certificate, and a statutory expert procedure if the owner rejects the state's offer. - Acquisition money is assembled from named bodies, not drawn from a reserve: the Societe des Amis du Louvre gave the final million euros on the Cimabue. ## An acquisition begins as an argument, not an offer ## The provenance check is the step that kills proposals ## The trustees sign, and in France the state signs ## The money is assembled, and the assembly is public ## The price a museum pays is not the price in the headline An acquisition is a paper trail before it is an object on a wall, and the paper trail is largely public if you know which document to open. The Louvre's own catalogue record for the Cimabue carries the commission date, the inventory date, the hammer price and the provenance in four lines, and it contradicts the reported figure that has circulated for six years. Anyone writing about a museum purchase should start with the institution's own record and treat the press account as a secondary source, because on the numbers that matter the two rarely agree. ## Questions **Who actually has the authority to buy a work for a national museum?** The governing body, not the curator. In the United States an accessions committee recommends and the board of trustees approves. In France the museum's acquisition commission approves, but the work becomes the property of the state and is held by the museum, which is why French national collections cannot be sold in the way American museum collections can. **What does the thirty-month period after a French export refusal actually allow?** It bars re-application for an export certificate and gives the state a window to make a purchase offer at a price reflecting the international market. If the owner refuses, the Code du patrimoine sets out an expert valuation procedure with a joint report and, if needed, a third arbitrating expert, after which the state has two months to make a final offer. **Why do acquisition credit lines list so many names?** Because museums almost never fund a major purchase from a single reserve. The Cimabue combined Louvre Abu Dhabi licence income, the Societe des Amis du Louvre, and American donors through the American Friends of the Louvre. Each name on a credit line represents a separate negotiation, and the order in which they appear usually reflects the size of the contribution. ## Sources - [1] Musee du Louvre, collections database, 'La Derision du Christ', inv. RFML.PE.2023.33.1 (institutional catalogue record). - [2] The Art Newspaper, 'Cimabue kitchen painting placed under export ban ends up at the Louvre', 6 November 2023. - [3] Legifrance, Code du patrimoine, articles L121-1 to L121-4 (acquisition of national treasures after refusal of an export certificate). - [4] Bulletin officiel des finances publiques, BOI-SJ-AGR-50-30, tax reductions under CGI articles 238 bis-0 A and 238 bis-0 AB. - [5] Art Fund, 'Self Portrait, Anthony Van Dyck', grant record for the National Portrait Gallery acquisition, 2014. - [6] American Alliance of Museums, Code of Ethics for Museums (adopted 1993, amended 2000). - [7] Association of Art Museum Directors, Standards and Practices, 'Professional Practices in Art Museums' (rev. 2022), published 19 December 2022. - [8] Museums Galleries Scotland, 'Immunity from Seizure', on DCMS 2005 due diligence guidance and approval requirements.