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"It is as if Minister Malraux had ordered the Eiffel Tower to be painted pink," wrote the correspondent of The Los Angeles Times. When in the summer of 1963 it became known that Marc Chagall would paint the ceiling, a shock went through the conservative circles in France. Paul Versteegh assisting Marc Chagall with his work in the Paris Opera Garnier had devised that style himself and called it Napoleon III, as a tribute to the man who was then emperor of France. The opera house, designed by Charles Garnier in 1860, a lavish mix of tinsel and marble. " It was the French minister of culture, André Malraux, who had askedMarc Chagall to paint the ceiling of the Paris Opéra Garnier.

"He was avoiding the issue but of course those comments touched him. "Chagall tried to stay away from that," the Dutch artist recalls. "Then Chagall finished the work himself." Versteeg saw a violent polemic around Marc Chagall, with a toxic, Anti-Semitic undertone. "Just like many great artists in the past, he had this work painted," says Versteeg. He saw a violent polemic around Marc Chagall As a twenty-year-old boy, Versteeg helped Chagall with the ceiling of the opera. There is currently an exhibition devoted to immigrant stories, by Chagall and other artists who moved to the city of lights at the beginning of the last century. The Dutch artist Paul Versteeg (75) experienced that turbulent episode from nearby, he tells in the Stedelijk Museum. And they say he should stay away from the national French heritage. A Russian, or even worse, a Jewish Russian. But he is also disappointed, because for some French people he is still a foreigner. The work was successful and Chagall is happy. The artist has just completed one of his most prestigious commissions: the painting of the ceiling of the Paris Opéra.

It is the mid-sixties and Marc Chagall is speaking with art critic Carlton Lake. You become a national of French citizens, you give them twenty paintings for their museum of modern art, you work on decorating their cathedrals for nothing and they still despise you". It is amazing how the French offend foreigners. "We had to complete our work under police protection.

The Dutch artist Paul Versteeg was there. When Marc Chagall painted the ceiling of the Paris opera in 1964, he became the target of foreigners' haters and anti-Semites.