The vagaries of history enabled the bank to build up a remarkable collection of art works, presented in the reception rooms of the Hôtel de Toulouse in Paris, in museums and at exhibitions.
Philippe-Claude Montigny, flat desk and cartonnier, c. 1765, under a decorated lintel by Boucher in the Fragonard Room.
© François Doury / Banque de France
"What! How can you walk on these Savonnerie carpets !" It needed this indignant exclamation from Bernadette Chirac, visiting the Banque de France when her husband, Jacques Chirac, was President of the French Republic, for the two large pieces commissioned by Louis XIV for the Galerie du Bord de l'Eau in the Louvre to be smartly rolled up, removed from the Golden Gallery and put away at last. But with or without its pieces from the Manufacture de la Savonnerie, the gallery is a tribute to French art, with all its mythological paintings and gilt woodwork. It is the jewel in the crown of the Banque de France in Paris's first arrondissement, which is housed in the Hôtel de Toulouse, built in the 17th century by François Mansart for Louis Phélypeaux de La Vrillière, Secretary of State to Louis XIII. During European Heritage Days, 16,000 visitors explore this noble residence…
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