All the expertise in specialized art storage that clients find at Clé Chenue do Brasil had an unusual beginning: in 1760, in France, with the trousseau of Queen Marie Antoinette.
The chamberlain André Chenue was in the exclusive service of the queen and was responsible for caring for her lingerie. Later, he was also entrusted with making crates for the transport and storage of all the monarchs' garments.
The company was then headquartered on Rue Croix-de-Petits-Champs, near the building that would later become the Louvre Museum.
With the end of the French monarchy at the turn of the 18th century, Chenue specialized in the packing and transport of works of art; in the 20th century it served mainly museums and private collectors.
Rescues at the Louvre and Notre-Dame
Today a shareholder in Clé Chenue do Brasil, Chenue took part in defining moments in the history of art: in 1914 and 1939, in the context of the two world wars, it helped evacuate works from the Louvre and transport them to safe locations, where they were protected from both bombing and looting.
In April 2019, the company played a key role in another great tragedy for cultural heritage: after the fire that destroyed Notre-Dame cathedral, Chenue was called in by the French Ministry of Culture to rescue works of art that remained inside the cathedral, whose vaults, weakened by the fire, were at risk of collapsing.
The company had only 36 hours to remove 18 large paintings measuring 4×5 meters, an operation involving 32 specialists and several transport vehicles. To receive the canvases, a 200-square-meter space was specially prepared in the Saint Denis warehouse: the environmental conditions of the space were adjusted to resemble those of the cathedral, ensuring the best preservation of the works. All the work was carried out by Chenue free of charge.
With more than 260 years of history, the company is a global reference in fine art logistics, an expertise made available to Brazilian institutions and collectors through Clé Chenue do Brasil, the only company in the country to offer art storage in a climate-controlled environment, with fire prevention and access control 24 hours a day.
Just like Chenue in Europe, Clé Chenue do Brasil serves the most important museums in the country, keeping safely stored part of the collections that are not on display.
