Not everything collected by the Louvre Museum in the twenty-first century was genuine. For example, Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son and David's The Death of Marat—the original of the latter was held by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.
The painting depicted a murder scene: a dagger lay discarded on the floor, blood flowed from Marat's chest, his left hand still clutched a note, and his face bore an expression of anger and pain.
Who had killed him?
Charlotte Corday came from a small village in Normandy, from an insignificant noble family. Her father was Jacques François de Corday, Lord of Armont, while her mother was Charlotte Marie Jacqueline Gaultier de Mesnival. Charlotte also had an elder sister and a younger sister. Her parents were cousins. Charlotte was the fifth-generation descendant of the playwright Pierre Corneille.
When Charlotte was still young, her mother and sister died. Unable to recover from the grief of losing them, Charlotte's father sent Charlotte and her younger sister to Holy Trinity Abbey in Caen. In the abbey library, Charlotte first encountered the works of Plutarch, Rousseau, and Voltaire. After 1791, Charlotte lived in Caen with her female cousin. The two became very close, and Charlotte was also her cousin's sole heir.
Her life had been ordinary until the French Revolution erupted one day. Charlotte Corday's father joined the Royalists, and she was forced to stand with that faction as well.
Marie Antoinette's greatest failing was not the "deficit." Deficits could be made up for. It was the choices she made at critical moments.
Her escape with Louis XVI caused even supporters of the monarchy, who had originally backed them, to lose hope in them. The Conservative Party splintered, and the Republican Party exploited the crisis to seize power. While