In the context of Les Choristes, explain the Theft and recovery of the History.
In 2009 the Orsay loaned Les Choristes to the Musée Cantini in Marseille for "De la scène au tableau" ("The Scene in Painting"), a multi-artist exhibit. On the last morning of the year, shortly before the exhibit ended, the security guard who opened the museum for the day found the painting missing.The thieves had apparently just unscrewed the frame and taken the work, valued at €800,000, off the wall. Investigators believed that, as in many cases of art theft, they had had some help from someone working at the museum. They detained and briefly interviewed a night watchman, but could find no reason to hold him, and released him. After that they had no leads.It was serendipitously recovered a little over nine years later. On February 16, 2018, French customs officers pulled over and searched an intercity bus off an exit from the A4 autoroute in Ferrières-en-Brie, 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of Paris in the department of Seine-et-Marne. They were primarily looking for illegal drugs, since smugglers prefer bus routes to ship them.They did not find any drugs on this occasion, but inside a suitcase in one of the luggage compartments was a small artwork; none of the passengers said it was theirs. They soon confirmed that it appeared to be the missing Les Choristes, although they did not know if it was authentic despite the Degas signature. Experts from the Orsay soon confirmed that it was, and it was undamaged.Several days later, in a joint news release, the customs agency and the Ministry of Culture announced the recovery of Les Choristes. Culture Minister Françoise Nyssen praised the customs service for "the fortunate recovery of a precious work whose disappearance had been a great loss to our national Impressionist heritage." Gérald Darmanin, Minister of Public Action and Accounts, said "the constant vigilance of customs", which had seized 10,000 possibly stolen works of art during 2017, had again proved its value in protecting French heritage.The previous year, the Orsay had marked the centenary of Degas's death with an exhibit of his work focusing on his relationship with Paul Valéry. The museum announced that it would include Les Choristes in an exhibit of the artist's work depicting opera, set to open in September 2019. After that, the exhibit will travel to Washington, D.C., where it will open at the National Gallery of Art in March 2020.
Gérald Darmanin National Gallery of Art Impressionist Paul Valéry Washington, D.C. Françoise Nyssen news release Ferrières-en-Brie Musée Cantini Ministry of Culture art theft Minister of Public Action and Accounts Paris Seine-et-Marne serendipitously A4 autoroute French customs officers department Marseille