The Al Thani Collection Foundation is pleased to have supported the restoration of The Queen Marie-Antoinette Canapé, an important canapé a la turque (sofa) commissioned for Versailles and designed by Jacques Gondoin in 1779. The canapé has been in the collection of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco since 1957 and recently returned to display there, coinciding with the museum’s centenary celebrations.

The canapé was originally designed as a daybed for the queen’s private sitting room though it was never used and was later converted into a sofa, likely in the queen’s household. It is included in an inventory of furniture taken from Versailles a few months before the execution of Marie-Antoinette and her husband, King Louis XVI.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco acquired the canapé in 1957. Over the past 18 years, it has been subject to a comprehensive programme of research and restoration involving more than a dozen specialists, including historians, conservationists and scientists. It is now considered as close to its original form as possible; it is a centrepiece of the Legion of Honor’s 100th anniversary celebrations which launched on 11 November 2024.

More details can be found here