In 2023, Nobel Prize laureate Mario Vargas Llosa was inducted into the French Academy (L’Académie française), becoming the first member in the institution’s history whose literary work was not written in French. His ceremonial attire from the Academy, known as l’habit vert, has now been donated to the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm by Raúl Tola, Director of Cátedra Vargas Llosa.

L’habit vert is the ceremonial attire that distinguishes members of the French Academy. It’s most emblematic garment is the coat, traditionally crafted in a dark color and adorned with green and gold olive branch embroidery on the cuffs, collar, and chest.

The attire was worn by Mario Vargas Llosa on 9 February, 2023, when, at the age of 87, he assumed seat number 18 in the Academy – a seat previously held by, among others, Alexis de Tocqueville. In doing so, he officially became one of the Academy’s “Immortals”.

“The attire is a symbol of how literature touches people far beyond national borders. At the Nobel Prize Museum, we currently have a major exhibition featuring over 250 items donated by laureates over the years. Through these objects, one can learn more about who the laureates are and what they received the Nobel Prize for,” says Hanna Stjärne, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation. 

“His induction was of considerable significance, as he was the first member in the institution’s long history whose literary work was not written in French. Moreover, Vargas Llosa was the first person to join the Academy after having received a Nobel Prize,” says Raúl Tola, Director of the Cátedra Vargas Llosa, who handed over the object.

Vargas Llosa passed away earlier this year at the age of 89. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010 for his “cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat.”

Vargas Lllosa’s objects on display

During Nobel Week in 2010, Vargas Llosa donated two objects to the Nobel Prize Museum: a wooden hippopotamus and a notepad from El País, where Vargas Llosa occasionally contributed as an independent writer.

The attire will now be displayed alongside Vargas Llosa’s two previously donated objects, in the exhibition These things changed the world.

The attire has been donated by Cátedra Vargas Llosa with the support of the Embassy of Spain in Sweden, the Embassy of Peru in Sweden and the Department of Romance Studies and Classics of the University of Stockholm.