While living in Paris, I felt very fortunate to visit the L’Orangerie many times. I never got tired of going. On one occasion, as I entered the first oval room beyond the entrance, I noticed something a bit peculiar. The room was almost completely empty aside from four gentleman strategically standing at each entrance and exit, and two in the middle along the perimeter of the oval. They were all dressed in black suits and neatly coiffed with tight short hair cuts, sporting ear pieces. I felt like I was walking onto a movie set, however, there were no cameras or lights. In the center of the room was a very tall African America man with a women who appeared to be one of the curators of the museum.
Claude Monet's "Water Lilies, Reflecions of Weeping Willows," ca. 1918, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. A study for the the grand paintings in the L'Orangerie in Paris
The men in dark suits watched my every move. Wherever I want their eyes followed me. It felt rather creepy. The tall African American gentleman looked familiar but I couldn’t place who he was. I knew I had seen him before. As he proceeded to the next room all the "suits" surrounded him and staged themselves as before, in the second room. I followed. I sat on a bench in front of one the water lily paintings where I could also get a good look at the tall gentleman all the “suits" seemed to be protecting. It finally dawned on me! It was the former Attorney General of the Untied States Eric Holder, obviously being surrounded by US Secret Service Agents. However at the time he was “the” Attorney General under the Obama Administration. This was almost ten years ago. I’m not so sure they would even let other patrons in the same room with the Attorney General now. The crowd was very light that day. Myself and a handful of others aside from these very special guests were the only ones there. They kept a very watchful eye on where we were all pointing our cameras!
Here is a short video to give you the idea of the space. Forgive the quality this was taken on a small Sony camera pre cell phone! It will sill still give you an idea of the scale of the paintings in this one room. This video was shot on a different day than the one described above. I wasn't taking the chance of getting my camera confiscated by the Secret Service!
