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Beautiful patinated bronze presentation trophy awarded to Dr. Ferenc Kemény of Hungary, a founding member of the International Olympic Committee, in recognition of his contributions to the reestablishment of the Olympic Games. Presented in Paris in 1904 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, co-founder and second president of the International Olympic Committee, the trophy commemorates the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, the second Olympic Games of the modern era.
Designed by Polish sculptor Henryk Kossowski and entitled “IIe Olympiade Paris 1900,” the award stands 26.25˝ in height, weighs 17 pounds, and depicts an allegorical female figure standing atop a cloud-form base and holding a laurel wreath aloft in her right hand. The sculpture bears the artist’s signature to the base, which features an engraved plate reading: “IIe Olympiade Paris 1900, Par Kossowski.”
The trophy is mounted on a marble base, 7.5˝ in diameter, which bears an engraved presentation plaque reading: “Le trophée et le diplôme d’honneur du C.O.I. ont été offerts à M. Dr. Kemény Ferenc (Hongrie), membre fondateur du C.O.I., pour le rétablissement des Jeux Olympiques, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, Paris 1904.” In fine condition.
Ferenc Kemény (1860–1944) was among Pierre de Coubertin’s earliest collaborators in the effort to revive the Olympic Games and was appointed an original member of the International Olympic Committee at its founding in 1894. A leading Hungarian educator and sports administrator, Kemény helped establish the Hungarian Olympic Committee and played a central role in securing Hungary’s participation in the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.
Presented by Coubertin in 1904 and expressly honoring Kemény ‘for the reestablishment of the Olympic Games,’ this trophy represents a rare surviving tribute exchanged between two of the principal architects of the modern Olympic movement. Few surviving Olympic artifacts can claim such close associations with the founders whose efforts established the framework of the modern Olympic movement.
