So, is Jeff Koons grand enough for the hallowed halls of Versailles?
The heritage and identity of the French nation will be sullied if the American pop artist Jeff Koons is allowed to go ahead with an exhibition in the hallowed halls of Versailles, according to traditionalists. They have started a campaign to bar the King of Kitsch from the 17th-century château outside Paris that was home to the French monarchy until the Revolution. Jean-Jacques Aillagon, chairman of the body that runs Versailles, says however that Koons’s eccentricity is well suited to an edifice shaped by Louis XIV, known as the Sun King, who ruled France from 1643 to 1715. The exhibition, which is due to open next month, would bring together a baroque artist from our time with the baroque of the 1600s, said Mr Aillagon.
