Van der Bellen in the footsteps of the great Austrians in Paris

Paris / Vienne (APA) – Last piece: a large brown suitcase bearing the initials "S.F." Next to that was a picture of the teacher and his daughter Anna arriving in Paris in June 1938, fleeing the Nazis. On Saturday, Sigmund Freud's exhibition at the Jewish Museum marked the end of a city tour with an Austrian connection, which was attended by President Alexander Van der Bellen in Paris.

The theme of the exhibition is not the expulsion of the teacher, but his work as the founder of psychobadysis. Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka illustrate this idea. The scandalous work "Origin of the World" by Gustave Courbet is of course hidden next to a staircase, so as not to frighten the museum's conservative visitors.

While Sigmund Freud made an involuntary stop in Paris at the end of his life, the artist Franz West only did it posthumously, at least as far as his work was concerned. The Center Pompidou, the most prestigious art museum in France, is currently dedicating a major retrospective to the Austrian artist-artist who died in 2012, a must-attend event for the federal president.

On the observation deck of the futuristic museum in central Paris, the president was leading two young compatriots whose wish for selfie was easily satisfied. Van der Bellen was there to record a short video on Facebook in front of the Parisian skyline.

Inside the museum were many famous papier mache objects from West, one of the most sought-after contemporary artists in Austria. A special interest in the chair and his delegation a table with mirrors in different angles, in which we could look several times. Rather cautiously, the president approached this oversized ani at Zuckerlrosa, designed by West as a seat.

Doris Schmidauer, wife of Van der Bellen, will attend another Austrian art show tomorrow at the Palace of Versailles, concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra celebrating the 100th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

Van der Bellen remains with dozens of other European and world leaders in the French capital to attend commemorations at the end of the First World War. Saturday night, he wanted to attend a banquet offered by French President Emmanuel Macron to the state's guests. After the ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe on Sunday morning, Van der Bellen also wished to participate in the Forum for Peace in Paris, launched by Macron on the occasion of the 100th anniversary, during which the German Chancellor Angela Merkel wished to deliver the opening speech.