Monet’s painting "Water Lilies:
A Reflection of Willow" Returned to Japan

PARIS. Presumably, the sketch of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies painting, once owned by a Japanese collector but considered lost for decades after World War II, was found and identified in the Louvre.

An oil painting called Water Lilies: Reflection of Willow was discovered by a researcher curled up in the corner of the Louvre’s vault in Paris. A canvas measuring 2 by 4 meters is very badly damaged and, unfortunately, now it looks like this:

The value of the painting has not been established, but Monet’s works are among the most expensive in the world. One version of "Water Lilies" at an auction in 2014 was sold for 32 million pounds.

The painting, created in 1916, is considered a study of one of the artist’s iconic works - a series of paintings "Water Lilies", located in the Orangerie Museum in Paris.

The canvas was once owned by Japanese business tycoon and art collector Kojiro Matsukate, who allegedly bought it directly from the artist before World War II. The painting disappeared after the collector sent it for several years to Paris for safe storage, along with other Western works from its collection.

During the war, Mr. Matsukata’s collection was requisitioned by the French government as enemy property before other works of art were eventually returned to Japan by the French government in 1959. The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo was created that same year - nine years after the death of Kojiro Matsukata - in order to house the surviving works of his vast collection. This picture was not in the returned collection.

During the war, the canvas was transported to a warehouse on the outskirts of Paris and was considered missing during the following decades. Now he is returned to Japan, where experts are currently performing the painstaking task of restoring it. The restored painting will be on display at the Tokyo National Museum of Western Art in June 2019.