The Flight into Egypt

In 1940, in occupied France, this small panel was seized from the Rothschild family on behalf of Hermann Göring, who was assembling a private collection of old masters. The Allies recovered it in Germany in 1945, and a year later it went back to the family. It had been theirs since 1850, when Baron James de Rothschild bought it at the sale of the Dutch king William II. In 1974 his great-granddaughter Bethsabée gave it to the Louvre while keeping the right to enjoy it for a time, and in 1981 she gave that up too. The gift reunited the panel with its two wings, Saint John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene, which the museum had owned since 1851. The Virgin carries the Child along a country road, while behind her Joseph reaches up into a tree and the donkey grazes.