The Musée d’Orsay’s Liberty Staute is a little under three metres high, was commissioned by Bartholdi himself in 1889, and subsequently exhibited in 1900 at the Universal Exhibition in Paris. That same year, the sculptor expressed a hope that the State would buy it, along with several other models including the Lion of Belfort, for the Musée du Luxembourg (the museum of modern art of its time). He declared that "these works are interesting because they have greatly contributed to the esteem in which I am held by my contemporary artists".
As there were no works by Bartholdi in the Luxembourg at that time, he undertook to give them some in return for the cost of the casting alone. His proposal was accepted, although the museum was unable to find a place for them in their already very full rooms. The solution was found in 1905, after the death of Bartholdi. The sculptor’s widow suggested putting Liberty outside the museum in the gardens. It would stay there for 115 years, from 1906 to 2011, until the Senate, which owns the Luxembourg Gardens, generously agreed to return the work to the Musée d’Orsay.
