A Chagall painting confiscated by customs has arrived in Besançon.

Customs officials in Franche-Comté officially presented Marc Chagall's "The Acrobat with the Violin" print to the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Besançon on Monday, July 20. The artwork, seized at the Swiss border in 2006, had lain in customs storage for twenty years.

A customs seizure that went unpunished for twenty years

During a roadside check at the Swiss border in 2006, customs officials in Franche-Comté seized this engraving, which was destined for Switzerland along with other works of art. According to Estelle Rocquelin, regional director of customs in Besançon, the print was not accompanied by any document justifying the state authorization allowing its export from French territory.

After twenty years of storage in customs warehouses, the administration decided to donate the engraving to the Besançon Museum of Fine Arts to enrich the city's heritage. This is the very first time the municipal institution has exhibited a work by Marc Chagall in its collections.

An engraving made in Paris in 1924

The Acrobat with the Violin was engraved by Marc Chagall in 1924 in Paris. The work depicts a long-bearded acrobat perched on an animal playing the violin, two motifs characteristic of the artist according to the museum curator, Maël Vandewalle, who participated in its authentication.

Born Moishe Zakharovich Shagalov in 1887 in Vitebsk, then part of the Russian Empire, Marc Chagall drew inspiration throughout his career from Russian folklore and Jewish tradition. Naturalized French in 1937, he died in 1985 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, in the Alpes-Maritimes region.