Ordre National du Merite Nomination (1967): the French State Honors Marcel Valsuani

On 18 May 1967, the French Ministry of State for Cultural Affairs nominated Marcel Valsuani as Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite, crowning a career of 44 years (1923–1967) at the head of the foundry his father Claude founded. The nomination form is a primary source of exceptional value: it records Marcel’s birth as 8 November 1902 in Paris XIVe, his address as 74 Rue des Plantes, his profession as fondeur d’art, and his earlier decoration as Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (January 1953, Journal Officiel of 18 April 1953).

The ministerial citation reads, in part: “M. Marcel Valsuani est le représentant d’une lignée de fondeurs à cire perdue qui a maintenu chez nous les plus belles traditions de ce véritable art de fondre. Il a hérité de son père, non seulement une technique incomparable, mais un goût et un amour de son métier… Les bronzes à cire perdue qu’il réalise peuvent rivaliser avec les plus beaux bronzes florentins du XVIème siècle.” (“He inherited from his father not only an incomparable technique, but a taste for and love of his craft… The lost-wax bronzes he produces rival the finest Florentine bronzes of the sixteenth century.”)

For the genealogical question at the heart of this research, the form is decisive on two points: the French state knew the foundry as a father-to-son lineage from Claude to Marcel (“il a hérité de son père”), and no “Marcello” appears anywhere in the state’s records of the family.

Source: Mémoire de proposition pour le grade de Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite, Ministère d’État – Affaires Culturelles, 18 May 1967. Last updated: 7 September 2026.