“Le Trésor retrouvé du Roi-Soleil” exhibition at the Grand Palais, Paris

European-based AFL members gathered for a special visit to the exhibition “Le Trésor retrouvé du Roi-Soleil” in the Nave of the Grand Palais, reuniting 30 of King Louis XIV’s Savonnerie rugs for the first time in history. Members enjoyed an exclusive guided tour with Wolf Burchard, Curator of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at The Met, and co-curator of this unprecedented exhibition.

For one week only, thirty remarkable rugs were presented together for the first time, rolled out as originally intended more than 350 years ago and extending over 140 meters. Conceived as a single monumental work—le tapis du roi—for the Grande Galerie of the Louvre, these magnificent creations represent one of the most ambitious undertakings in the history of French art. Produced over more than twenty-five years by the Dupont and Lourdet manufactories, the rugs were never used by the King and were later dispersed as diplomatic gifts or lost following the French Revolution.

Over the centuries, many entered the prestigious collections of English and American families, including the Rothschilds, Ephrussis, Vanderbilts, J. P. Morgan, and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman. Painstakingly reunited, the rugs offered members a truly rare and memorable opportunity to experience their breathtaking scale, beauty, and extraordinary history firsthand—an unforgettable celebration of the grandeur and legacy of French art.