Olivier Sainsère

Olivier Sainsère was a French politician of the Third Republic and a lover of art, an eminent collector and patron of numerous artists, including, above all, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Already Olivier’s father Louis Sainsère (1811-1860) was a politician and mayor of his birthplace Bar-le-Duc. The family had already gone into exile from Denmark to France in the 1500s.

Sainsère studied in Bar-le-Duc, where he became friends with Raymond Poincaré (1860-1934), who was also born in Bar-le-Duc and was to become president of France from 1913-20. Sainsère began his career as a lawyer. At 39, he was a prefect, at 43 a councilor of state, 1915-1920 secretary-general to the president of the republic, and a civil servant in various high positions in the ministries of the interior, finance, war, navy, and public works.

He became one of the patrons of Pablo Picasso, whom he discovered through the Berthe Weill Gallery, where he frequently purchased paintings. Picasso owed Sainsère the legalization of his residence papers in France and his protection during the affair of the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911.

A lover of art, Sainsère was a member of numerous associations of arts and museums, including a member of the Supreme Council of Fine Arts, an honorary member of the Salon d’automne, president of the Council of Juries for Painting, and a corresponding member of the Institut de France. A lover of beautiful books, he was also one of the founding members of the Cent Bibliophiles.

From Knight (1892), he rose over time to Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor (1918). He received numerous other awards, including as Grand Officer of the Order of the Dragon of Annam, Commander of the Royal Order of Cambodia, and further orders from Tunisia, the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Austro-Hungary, and Great Britain.