The Centre des monuments nationaux (CMN) has acquired, with the help of the Heritage Fund, several pieces of furniture signed by Robert Mallet-Stevens that will find their place in the Villa Cavrois.
«After having been restored, Villa Cavrois gradually finds this furniture that was one with her», stresses Fleur Pellerin. Thanks to the mobilization of the State, the total work of art of Robert Mallet-Stevens recovers its splendour of "Modern Castle", as had imagined its creator. It is a joy and a pride for those who fought so hard for her.” “It is precisely to prevent monuments from being dismembered or deprived of their movable property, like the Villa Cavrois, that their protection will be strengthened in the bill I am wearing,” added the Minister.
A set of eight armchairs and two tables, from the villa’s large lounge-hall, and a pair of chairs from Monsieur Cavrois' office, from the Utterberg collection, were acquired on December 16 at Sotheby’s New York. This furniture was sold following the death of Madame Cavrois in April 1987.
This acquisition is all the more remarkable since furniture from the lounge-hall and the office of Monsieur Cavrois had not yet been reunited.
The Centre des monuments nationaux has also recently acquired a set of two chairs and a desk in one of the children’s study rooms on the Paris market.
Completed in 1932 by the architect Mallet-Stevens, Villa Cavrois is a total work of art, the furniture of which is part of the architecture. After several years of abandonment, the villa was bought in 2001 by the State, before being the subject of major restoration works, then opened to the public last June.
The return of the original furniture to the spaces for which they were designed, will contribute significantly to the enrichment of the presentation of the villa, remarkable building of the twentieth century, whose public success does not fail. Since its opening, it has welcomed more than 80,000 visitors.