On one side Cariatides of Renoir representing two naked women in an art deco style, of the other The Barges of Alfred Sisley representing the Norman port of Dieppe. The common point between these two works, regardless of their impressionist character? At the beginning of the Second World War, they were both owned by Grégoire Schusterman, a Jewish art dealer of Russian nationality who arrived in France at the beginning of the 20th centurye century.
After being looted during the war, they were returned to the collector’s eleven successors on Thursday, May 16. “ Because these two paintings had become in spite of themselves traces of persecution and proof of injustice, it is with great emotion that, together today, we act of reparation ", says Culture Minister Rachida Dati.
Forced sale
The story of Grégoire Schusterman joins that of many Jews spoliated between 1933 and 1945 by the Nazi regime. In 1933, he opened his own gallery at 20, avenue Kléber, in the 16e district of Paris, opposite the hotel Majestic which was the headquarters of the German military command in France. In the autumn of 1940 he obtained the cancellation of the lease of his gallery and decided, in March 1941, to flee Paris for the south in order to escape the anti-Semitic persecutions of the Occupier and the Vichy regime. To ensure his livelihood, he was forced to part with some of his works, including Renoir and Sisley. “ It is in the trajectory of these two paintings that we can read the rest of the story and the double injustice that is experienced by Grégoire Schusterman. First of all that of the forced sale, which is indeed a modality of spoliation, then that of being rejected, after the war, of all the claims for compensation and restitution, as if its property on these works was contested a second time ", assures the Minister
The trajectory of these paintings could be traced: in 1941, they were exchanged on the Parisian art market and bought by a German art merchant who shipped them across the Rhine. After the Second World War, Cariatides were recovered by the Allies in Bavaria while The Barges were found in the Rhineland. The paintings were then repatriated to France, where they became MNR (National Museums Recovery) works. In 1950, they were entrusted to the Musée du Louvre, then in 1986 to the Musée d'Orsay. Sisley’s work was on display at the dieppe museum since 1954 and that of Renoir Renoir Museum de Cagnes-sur-Mer since 1995.
Request for restitution in 2022
Because of the context of the time, the Commission for the Compensation of Victims of Plunder (CIVS), placed under the authority of the Prime Minister, considered that this sale was forced and therefore recommended their return. An application was made in 2022 by the beneficiaries of Grégoire Schusterman, assisted by Hélène Ivanoff, an independent researcher. “ Today an ancient tragedy dating back almost a century, stresses one of the rights holders present at the restitution ceremony. Our relative suffered the anti-Semitic persecution of the Occupation. He was hunted down, humiliated and stripped of his property. Certainly he was neither deported nor murdered like millions of others. He survived, returned home and tried for several years to recover the works from which he had been robbed, without success. He never mentioned it and his grief was buried in silence. It was up to us, his nephews, grandnephews and nieces, to assume the duty of memory and justice due to him. »
These two paintings could be restored thanks to the work of the Mission to search for and restore cultural property stolen between 1933 and 1945 (M2RS), created in 2019 within the Ministry of Culture and dedicated to research the provenance of stolen goods. On April 11, the Prime Minister decided to return the two paintings to the merchant’s family. Research on other works sold under duress by Grégoire Schusterman during the Second World War continues and some have already been located.
Nearly 2,200 MNR works in state custody
Today, thanks to clandestine notes taken by conservation attaché Rose Valland, it is estimated that some 100,000 people were robbed during the Second World War, a figure that could be underassessed because many families did not report the disappearance of their property at the Liberation. At the end of the conflict, about 60,000 works were recovered in Germany or in the territories controlled by the Third Reich and returned to France, 45,000 of which were returned to their owners by the Commission de récupération artistique (CRA) between 1945 and 1950.
Of the remaining 15,000, 2,200 were selected according to certain criteria by the administration and entrusted to the care of the national museums: these are the works called «National Museums Recovery» (MNR). These are not necessarily looted and some have been sold by landlords who were not threatened or persecuted. Today, the vast majority (87%) of MNR works have a blurred provenance. A total of 188 MNR and related works and objects have been restored since 1950.
In addition to MNR works, property that was stolen but entered into public collections could only be returned on a case-by-case basis with the adoption of a specific law, under the principle of inalienability of works of art in museums. The framework law of 22 July 2023 opened a derogation from this principle and the public owner (the State or a territorial collectivity) may now decide to return the property after consulting the Commission for the Restitution of Property and the Compensation of Victims of Anti-Semitic Dispossession (CIVS).
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