Over the next few years, Diderot also became one of Catherine’s most important art brokers, jubilantly spending her money (in consultation with Golitsyn) on what he believed to be the best available canvases and sculptures. His most significant impact as cultural agent began in 1768, after Golitsyn left Paris to become ambassador to Holland. Collaborating far more closely at this point with Grimm and François Tronchin — the latter a Genevan art enthusiast who would later sell his own collection to Catherine — Diderot utterly transformed the empress’s burgeoning holdings.
