Group of Theatrical Costume Accessories, comprising a white faux fur and buckram cat mask with applied whiskers and painted blue eyes, a ribbed pique vest; a silver lame bodice; a gold lame camisole; and black net and lace panniers on black boning.  Provenance: Formerly property of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 

Originally acquired from an auction of deaccessioned ballet costumes from the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, these costume elements have no identifying markings of any kind and are thus, finally, a mystery. However, this grouping seems, in our view, to strongly correlate to the designs by Leonor Fini (Argentine, 1907–96) for Roland Petit's first Ballets de Paris production of Les Demoiselles de la Nuit. This 1948 ballet tells the story of a musician who falls in love with his beautiful cat Agathe, who has assumed semi-human form. Agathe tries to be faithful to her human lover but is lured away by the sound of tomcats and the call of freedom. She leaps off the rooftops and the musician falls to his death as he tries to grab hold of her. She falls after him and they are united in death.