A Paris Court Has Denied Restitution Requests From Heirs of Prominent French Art Dealer and Holocaust Victim René Gimpel

A Paris court has denied a request by Claire Touchard, a
descendant of the Jewish French dealer René Gimpel, to return
paintings she says were stolen from him during World War II.

The court ruled that there was not enough evidence to determine
whether the three paintings, all by Fauvist painter André Derain,
had been looted. Instead, the works of art will remain in place at
the Modern Art Museum of Troyes and Marseille’s Cantini Museum.

“The court was too prudent,” Touchard told France24. “You need
courage to take paintings away from national museums.” She said she
plans to appeal the decision.

Gimpel acquired the three Derain paintings in 1921, when he was
a major Paris dealer who also operated galleries in New York and
London. Pictures taken at the time show the
works—A View of Cassis, Chapelle-Sous-Crecy, and
Pinewood in Cassis, all done between 1907 and 1910—in both
his home and on the walls of his gallery.

When the war broke out, Gimpel took his family to the south of
France but could no longer return to his home and gallery in Paris
and had no access to his art collection. He reportedly sold
paintings through his housekeeper and a relative who was still
living in Paris.

German officers allegedly seized paintings that Gimpel attempted
to have shipped to him in southern France. The dealer then tried to
sell other paintings through galleries that promised to conceal his
identity. He managed to sell some paintings at prices well below
market value, which under French law is considered a “forced sale”
that equates to illegal plundering.

However, it is unclear whether the Derain paintings were among
those that Gimpel sold under duress. He later died at
the Neuengamme concentration camp in
Northern Germany.

“The family failed to prove those specific paintings were still
in his possession during the war,” attorney Beatrice
Cohen, the lawyer representing the Troyes Modern Art Museum,
told France 24. She said that while there is no doubt that Gimpel
purchased the paintings at the Hôtel Drouot auction house in 1921,
there are some inconsistencies regarding references in his stock
ledger with respect to sizes and titles.

Corinne Hershkovitch, the attorney for the family, said the
dimensions were different because the original canvases were
relined. The title were different, she said, because Gimpel
renamed them for marketing purposes. Hershkovitch says she is
optimistic about prospects for an appeal.

The auction record for a painting by Derain is $24 million
(£16.3 million), set for a 1905 landscape, Arbres à
Collioure, that sold at Sotheby’s London in June 2010,
according to the artnet Price Database.
The database lists more than 4,000 results for Derain. Nine works
have sold for more than $5 million each at auction and 29 works
have sold for $1 million.

The post A Paris Court Has Denied Restitution Requests From
Heirs of Prominent French Art Dealer and Holocaust Victim René
Gimpel appeared first on artnet News.