Major Exhibit Marks 200th Anniversary of Louisiana Purchase

4/9/2002

From: Kay Brief, 877-568-1233

News Advisory:

The state of Louisiana, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) and the French Consulate will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. Thursday, April 11, to announce a major exhibition to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase.

The news conference will be held on the same day, 199 years earlier, that the French minister of foreign affairs, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, first informed Robert Livingston, the U.S. ambassador to France, that Napoleon wanted to sell the Louisiana Territory. It would turn out to be history's largest real-estate transaction, encompassing more than 800,000 square miles and doubling the size of the United States for only $15 million -- about 4 cents an acre.

The land involved in the Louisiana Purchase became all or part of 17 states from the Gulf Coast to the Canadian border: Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama.

The NOMA exhibition will be titled "Jefferson's America & Napoleon's France" and will feature rare documents, fine art, historical artifacts and period furniture, clothing and jewelry from U.S. and European collections. It will open April 12, 2003, and run through August 31, 2003. It will be a focal point of the statewide Louisiana Purchase celebration; numerous events will take place throughout the year in New Orleans and across the state.

WHO: -- Louisiana Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco -- John Bullard, executive director, New Orleans Museum of Art -- Roland Celette, cultural attachi, Embassy of France -- Phillip J. Jones, secretary, Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism -- Dr. Gail Feigenbaum, exhibition curator; associate director, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; former curator of European paintings, New Orleans Museum of Art -- Lindy Boggs, former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, former U.S. representative from Louisiana and descendant of the first U.S. governor of the Louisiana Territory, William C.C. Claiborne

WHERE: La Maison Francaise (French Embassy) 4101 Reservoir Road NW, Washington, D.C. Parking is available in a garage directly across the street from the Embassy.

WHEN: 11 a.m. Thursday, April 11

New Orleans cuisine and music, with an appearance by a prominent jazz musician and specialties from Commander's Palace, will be featured. "Thomas Jefferson" and "Napoleon Bonaparte" will make special appearances.

RSVP: Due to security requirements, attendees must respond in advance and present the invitation or confirmation and a photo ID to attend. Call 877-568-1233 (toll free) to attend.