# What Came Back in 1815, and What Did Not > Four objects in this archive were taken, held or borrowed in the Napoleonic wars. One was returned, one was swapped, one was ceded by treaty and one was sent back by order. The instrument decided each outcome. > The Study - 2026-11-09 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/study/what-came-back-in-1815-and-what-did-not/ ## Key points - The 1815 returns were not one rule applied to every object. In this archive the outcome turned on the instrument that moved the object: a treaty clause, a military capitulation, a loan or a plain requisition. - Memling's Last Judgment went back to Danzig because its owners refused every substitute. Veronese's Wedding Feast at Cana stayed in Paris because a substitute was accepted. - The Rosetta Stone is the opposite case. It was French-found and British-held from 1801 under a capitulation article, and no 1815 settlement touched it. - Two of the three objects that did come home have since been moved by other wars. Memling's triptych was taken again in 1945 or 1946 and returned only in the 1950s. ## Four Napoleonic takings in this archive had four different endings ## The Wedding Feast at Cana stayed because the Louvre offered a substitute ## Memling's triptych returned because Danzig would not accept a substitute ## The Rosetta Stone never entered the 1815 argument because a capitulation had already moved it ## The Bayeux Tapestry went to Paris as a loan that Napoleon himself ended ## What the four endings say about restitution after a war After the Napoleonic wars an object went home because someone at the table would not take a substitute, or stayed because someone did, and the Veronese in the Louvre and the Memling in Gdansk are the two clearest proofs of it in this archive. ## Questions **Why is Veronese's Wedding Feast at Cana still in the Louvre?** It was not returned in 1815 because a substitute was accepted: Charles Le Brun's Le Repas chez Simon went to Venice instead. Sources differ on whether the Austrian commissioner or Antonio Canova made the decision, and both versions say the painting was thought too fragile to move. **Did Memling's Last Judgment triptych come back from the Louvre?** Yes. It was taken from Danzig in 1807 and returned after Napoleon's fall, and the National Museum in Gdansk says it was displayed again in St Mary's Church in January 1817. It was taken again after 1945 and came back to Poland about ten years later. **How did the Rosetta Stone get to the British Museum?** It passed to British hands under the Capitulation of Alexandria in 1801 after the French army in Egypt surrendered. It reached Portsmouth in February 1802 and has been on display in London since June 1802. **Was the Bayeux Tapestry ever kept in the Louvre?** No. It was shown in the Apollo Gallery in Paris from 6 December 1803 to 18 February 1804 and sent back to Bayeux by Napoleon's order of 23 February 1804. ## Sources - [1] National Museum in Gdansk, 'The history of the painting', Last Judgment triptych (1807 occupation, Paris, return in January 1817, Red Army 1946, return after ten years) - [2] Wikipedia, 'The Wedding at Cana (Veronese)' (11 September 1797 taking, 1815 non-return, Le Brun exchange, 2007 facsimile) - [3] Wikipedia, 'Rosetta Stone' (Capitulation of Alexandria, HMS Egyptienne, Portsmouth in February 1802, display from June 1802, October 1972 Louvre loan) - [4] Wikipedia, 'Bayeux Tapestry' (display in Paris under Napoleon, British Museum loan September 2026 to July 2027) - [5] Iconotheca record, Veronese, The Wedding Feast at Cana (Louvre INV 142; treaty clause, Berthollet's list, 1815 exchange), citing the Louvre catalogue and Hanson, Uglow and Chalton - [6] Iconotheca record, The Bayeux Tapestry (1794 seizure, Apollo Gallery 6 December 1803 to 18 February 1804, return order of 23 February 1804)