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3. From Father to Son, from Beirut to the Louvre, the Epic of the Abou Adal Icons

The prestigious Abou Adal collection, comprising 272 Eastern Christian icons from the 15th to the 20th century, is joining the future Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Arts at the Louvre. This major acquisition, the result of a family passion, transforms the Parisian museum into a global reference center for icon art.  

The extraordinary journey of the Abou Adal collection began in the early 1950s, in a Lebanon then regarded as the “Switzerland of the Middle East.” Georges Abou Adal, driven by a curiosity for Eastern sacred art, acquired his first icons in 1952. What started as a personal interest quickly turned into a passionate quest to preserve and document an artistic heritage that was largely unknown in the West.

Between 1952 and 1970, Georges Abou Adal passionately assembled an exceptional collection of icons, a legacy his son Freddy carried forward in the 1990s, expanding and perpetuating his father's work. Now housed at the Louvre, this remarkable ensemble features masterful works from the 15th to the 20th century, spanning the Orthodox world—from Greece (Mount Athos, Meteora, Peloponnese) and Russia (Novgorod, Moscow, Yaroslavl) to the Balkans and the Middle East.

An Exceptional Collection

What fundamentally distinguishes the Abou Adal collection is its remarkable geographical and chronological diversity. With its 272 works spanning five centuries, it offers an unparalleled panorama of the different schools and traditions of Eastern Christian iconography.

Greek icons stand alongside those from the Balkans, while Russian works converse with those from Transylvania and Wallachia. The collection includes rare examples of 15th-century Cretan icons, reflecting Venetian influence, Balkan pieces with Ottoman influences, and important works in the “Brâncovenesc” style of Wallachia – a unique fusion of Byzantine and Western elements.

However, the true uniqueness of this collection lies in its significant ensemble of Levantine and Melkite icons. Acquired mostly before the landmark exhibition at the Nicolas Sursock Museum in Beirut in 1969, these works offer an exceptional testimony to the Arabophone Christian art of Syria, Lebanon and Jerusalem in the 17th and 18th centuries. They illustrate the artistic revival that accompanied the resurgence of the Greek Patriarchate of Antioch, particularly in the workshops of Aleppo – a commercial and cultural crossroads between East and West.

The collection also stands out for its abundance of signed works by identified artists, including renowned masters such as Michael Damaskinos and the brothers Georgios and Frangos Kontaris. This characteristic – rare in the realm of icons, where anonymity was often the norm – adds historical and documentary value to the ensemble.

Among the collection’s masterpieces, several stand out for their iconographic rarity or exceptional quality. A large icon depicting the First Council of Nicaea (325 AD) is an absolute rarity. Likely created in the 17th century, this work illustrates the gathering of the 318 Church Fathers who established the Nicene Creed, the doctrinal foundation of Christianity. Emperor Constantine is depicted at the center, surrounded by bishops from across the Roman Empire, defining the divine nature of Christ in response to the Arian heresy.

Equally remarkable is the “Feast of Orthodoxy” icon, commemorating the restoration of the veneration of images after the iconoclastic crisis that afflicted the Byzantine Empire between 726 and 843. This work celebrates the triumph of the defenders of icons and serves as a theological justification for the representation of the divine.

The collection also includes several “vita-icons,” where the central image of the saint is surrounded by narrative scenes illustrating key episodes of their life. One dedicated to Saint James the Persian, a 5th-century martyr beheaded for refusing to renounce his Christian faith, presents twelve scenes of his torment with striking meticulousness.

Depictions of the Stylite Saints, Simeon the Elder and Simeon the Younger, are another gem of the collection. These ascetics, who lived atop pillars (stylos in Greek) to draw closer to heaven and distance themselves from earthly temptations, are particularly venerated in the Syriac tradition. Their representations reflect the hagiographic revival of the 17th century, aimed at promoting local sanctuaries and revitalizing pilgrimages.

Two Decisive Museum Milestones

Before its acquisition by the Louvre, the Abou Adal collection experienced two pivotal moments that introduced it to the public and the scientific community.

The first major exhibition took place in 1993 at the Carnavalet Museum in Paris. Titled Arab Icons: Christian Art of the Levant, it was a revelation for many visitors, showcasing Eastern Christian art for the first time. The catalog, written by international specialists, significantly contributed to the academic recognition of these works, which had long been considered marginal in Byzantine art history.

In 1997, the Museum of Art and History in Geneva hosted a more comprehensive exhibition of the collection, expanding the focus to include various represented schools. This event, accompanied by a major international symposium, allowed for stylistic and iconographic comparisons between different traditions and refined the chronology of certain works.

Since these foundational exhibitions, many pieces from the collection have been loaned for thematic events and have been extensively studied in scholarly publications. Renowned researchers such as Mat Immerzeel, Virgil Cândea and Agnès-Mariam de la Croix have helped contextualize these works within the complex history of Eastern Christian communities and their interactions with surrounding cultures.

The Louvre's acquisition of the Abou Adal collection marks a decisive step in the recognition of post-Byzantine art, long marginalized by Western historiography. It also represents a cornerstone of the future Department of Byzantine Arts and Eastern Christianities, set to open in 2027 within the prestigious Parisian museum.

This innovative department, bringing together nearly 20,000 works, will illustrate the richness and diversity of Christian artistic expressions across a vast territory stretching from Ethiopia to Russia, from the Balkans to the Middle East. It will transcend traditional divisions between Byzantine, post-Byzantine and Eastern Christian art, offering a cross-cultural and comparative perspective on these traditions.

The Abou Adal collection will play a fundamental role in complementing existing holdings and recent acquisitions since 2022. It will help establish chronological and stylistic bridges with older works already in the museum’s collection, such as the 8th-century Christ and Abbot Mena icon discovered in Bawit, Middle Egypt.

To highlight the significance of this acquisition and lay the scholarly foundations of the future department, an international symposium titled In Flesh and Gold: Perspectives on the Icon, 15th–20th Century will be held jointly by the Louvre, the Collège de France and the École du Louvre on April 7–8, 2025. Experts from the United States, Europe and the Middle East will participate.

When the Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Arts opens in 2027, visitors from around the world will be able to admire these icons, where the golden light converses with the depth of the gazes – witnessing a millennia-old quest to depict the undepictable.