A Collection of Historical and Art Medals

France, c.1940. Pierre de Coubertin, gilt-bronze plaque by R. Pelletier for Decat, 91 x 53mm. Good very fine, rare (£80-100)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Historical and Art Medals.

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Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) an educationalist deeply read in the Greek classics and a profound admirer of ancient Greek sporting ideals, was the founder of the modern Olympic movement. He convened an international Olympic Congress at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1894, at which it was agreed that the venue for the first modern Olympic Games should be, appropriately, Athens in 1896. As a tribute to de Coubertin the second Games were held in his native Paris in 1900, but the events there were overshadowed by the concurrent Expo. The standards of organisation and presentation that de Coubertin had initially set were not, he felt, fully met until the Stockholm Games of 1912.