Sun King Cucci Cabinets reinstated at Alnwick Castle

The world’s only pair of Sun King Cucci Cabinets, commissioned exclusively for the palace of Versailles in the 17th century, were reinstated in the 1,000-year-old Alnwick Castle in Northumberland following their intensive restoration programme.

The cabinets, which before their renovation had not left the Castle since 1930, were absent for one- and-a-half years while well-known conservator Yannick Chastang restored them to their highly extravagant former glory.

They are the only pair of Cucci cabinets famously created during the reign of King Louis XIV and commissioned solely for the palace of Versailles.

There is only one other single Cucci cabinet still in existence. The King had the pair especially designed by Charles Le Brun and then made at the Gobelins by Domenico Cucci, and delivered to the palace of Versailles in 1683. Each has a unique depiction – one a spaniel and one a monkey. Their cousin, the third cabinet, sold for over $4.5 million in 2009, making it one of the most expensive pieces of furniture ever sold.

The fact that the Alnwick cabinets are a pair adds hugely to their value and they are described by Chastang as “the most valuable pieces of furniture in the world”.