In August, the National Library asked the public to help with the purchase of a €2.4 million illuminated manuscript; last week, the Musée d’Orsay began a campaign to raise €30,000 towards restoration of a Courbet painting. This week, the Louvre – who’s been doing this for four years now – launched a €1 million appeal to help buy a bejeweled 18th-century table that Proust wrote about in Swann’s Way.