OPERATION ST. HELENA: THE TABLE HAS LANDED...

napoleon.org 24^th May 2013

“Operation St. Helena” was marked this week by a newsworthy event. After a long journey by boat and road, thirty pieces of furniture from Longwood House have arrived at Château de Bois-Préau, where they will be taken care of by a team of specialists as part of the restoration process. Amongst the historic pieces are a billiard table, Napoleon’s globes, a dining table and console tables. We can’t show you anything but the boxes that these treasures are kept in; like the in the Little Prince, you’ll have to imagine what they contain until 28 May, when unpacking will start. The restoration, to be followed by an exhibition running in 2016, probably at the Musée de l’Armée, was made possible thanks to the generosity of nearly 2,000 donors to Operation St. Helena, initiated by the Domaines nationaux de St Hélène, the Fondation Napoléon, the French Foreign Ministry and the Souvenir Napoléonien. It’s still possible to make a contribution online. Sixty pieces of furniture related to Napoleon’s exile remain on St. Helena. They however are to be restored in situ on the island. The government of St. Helena is making a substantial donation of £80,000 for this. As a result a French restoration specialist can go to the island to train young apprentices there. We should congratulate Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, curator of the Domaines and the honorary French consul, who has been the lynchpin of all of the work, negotiations, transfers, journeys and a hundred other things beside.

Thierry Lentz, Director of the Fondation Napoléon