The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, has acquired Jean Siméon Chardin’s 1760 painting “The Cut Melon” after a complex series of events. The painting had initially been sold at Christie’s France in June 2024 for $30.3 million to Italian real estate investor Nanni Bassani Antivari, with the Kimbell Art Museum as the underbidder. However, news later emerged that Bassani Antivari had not paid for the painting, leading Christie’s to pursue legal action.
This unresolved case left the painting’s future uncertain until the Kimbell Art Museum announced on Wednesday that it had successfully acquired “The Cut Melon” directly from the descendants of Baroness Charlotte de Rothschild, who had purchased the painting in 1876. Museum director Eric Lee expressed his excitement over the acquisition, describing “The Cut Melon” and another Chardin work, “Basket of Wild Strawberries,” as “the two most important Chardin still lifes that were still in private hands.” The Kimbell had previously attempted to acquire “Basket of Wild Strawberries” in 2022 but was unsuccessful when France declared it a national treasure, allowing the Louvre to secure it for their collection.
Kimbell’s Chardin painting acquisition
“The Cut Melon,” created on a rare oval canvas nearly two feet wide, features a complex composition of rounded forms, with a vivid orange wedge of cantaloupe atop the exposed core of a sliced melon. Lee noted that the painting’s quiet stillness resonates with the quiet stillness of the museum’s Louis I. Kahn building, and that the architecture and painting complement each other well.
The acquisition of “The Cut Melon” strengthens the Kimbell’s collection of still lifes, which Lee acknowledged as a relatively weak area for the museum. The painting will go on public display starting this Thursday at the Kimbell Art Museum.
