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The story, revealed by the agency Bloomberg, expands the series of antecedents related to the presidential trip that has become a political case less than two months before the presidential elections: that carried out by Trump in France, in November 2018, on the occasion of the celebrations of the centenary of the end of the Great War. Second The Atlantic, the president would have called “idiots” and “losers” to the fallen Americans buried in the monumental cemetery of Aisne-Marne. But two years later, that commemoration day seems much longer and rich in background.
After the visit to the cemetery was canceled due to heavy rains that discouraged the helicopter transfer, and excluding a 90-kilometer car ride, President Trump was left with six hours of total freedom, he writes. Bloomberg. Housed in the ambassador’s residence, the 1842 building of the Hotel de Pontalba, on Rue Saint-Honoré, in the elegant 8th arrondissement, wandering the corridors decorated with Calder paintings and George Washington statues, Trump was conquered by three antiquities: a bust of President Franklin, a portrait, and a series of small sculptures depicting Greek gods attributed to a 20th century artist, Luigi Avolio.
To the incredulous members of the presidential staff, Trump ordered everything loaded onto Air Force One at the same times he was going to visit another cemetery, just before returning to Washington. “The president – confirmed a Bloomberg me French Press White House spokesman Judd Deere brought these magnificent pieces, which belong to the American people, to the United States to make available to the ‘people’s home.’
In fact, according to Bloomberg, The decision would have caused severe headaches among White House and State Department staff and furious email exchanges about an unusual operation. According to sources cited by the newspaper, the value of the objects would amount to about 750 thousand dollars, but in fact it appears that the first two are copies, while the statuettes are sculptures that the Neapolitan artist would have tried to pass as statuettes from the 16th centuries and XVI. 17th century.
When Trump was pointed out that Franklin’s bust was a replica, he reportedly responded by joking about it and saying that he liked the copy better than the original. The replica would still be on display in the private dining room in the West Wing of the White House, where Trump collects all of his travel memorabilia and gifts from friends.
Among them, a pair of shoes donated by the rapper and presidential candidate, Kanye west and the mixed martial arts champion belt. Franklin’s own portrait turned out to be a copy of the original, painted by Joseph Siffred Duplessis in France in 1785 and kept in the National Portrait Gallery, which is located less than a mile from the White House. The museum’s curators brought the original to the Oval Office and placed it in place of the copy taken from Paris.
