Handwritten version of a famous erotic text bought by the French State

The French state has acquired the original manuscript of “120 days of Sodom” from the Marquis de Sade for nearly 5 million euros, safeguarding for the country a work declared a national treasure, the Ministry of Culture announced on Friday.

The eighteenth-century erotic masterpiece met a turbulent fate over the centuries, but the future of the original text now seems assured after a private benefactor intervened with the money.

The Ministry of Culture intervened in December 2017 to prevent the sale of the manuscript at auction, declaring it a national treasure and banning its export.

The ministry said in a press release that it had spent 4.55 million euros to acquire the work for France.

He hailed the text as a “monument” which has influenced many authors.

Sade wrote the controversial work about four wealthy libertines in search of sexual gratification on a scroll made of pieces of parchment he had smuggled into his cell in the Bastille prison.

Left in the Bastille in Paris

When the Paris prison was stormed at the start of the French Revolution on July 14, 1789, the famous aristocrat was freed, but he was swept away by the crowds without his manuscript.

Sade believed the document had been lost in the hands of looters and was crying “tears of blood” over it, but the unfinished manuscript was kept after being hidden by a revolutionary and then secretly purchased by an aristocrat, the Marquis de Villeneuve-Trans.

It only became known to the public after a German psychologist, Iwan Bloch, bought it and authorized its first publication in 1904.

The book was banned in Britain until the 1950s.
Measuring 12 meters long, the manuscript itself is something unusual, made up of 33 sheets glued together to form a roll.

The sum allowing its repurchase by France was entirely provided by Emmanuel Boussard, former investment banker and co-founder of the investment fund Boussard & Gavaudan, specified the ministry.

It will be part of the collection of the Arsenal library in Paris, a branch of the National Library of France of the BNF.