an 18th century painting looted by the Nazis in Arcachon sold at Christie’s

Cn Thursday, November 21, in Paris, “Portrait of a Woman, Half-length” will be sold at auction at Christie’s, a painting painted in 1700 by Nicolas de Largillierre (1656-1746). Estimated between 50,000 and 80,000 euros, it is above all one of the symbols of the spoliation of Jewish property carried out by the Nazis during the Second World War. And its history passes through Arcachon.

This work was painted in 1700 by Nicolas de Largillierre on his return to France after having been the assistant of Sir Peter Lely, painter to King Charles II in England. We don’t know who is represented here. This woman belongs to the aristocracy or the upper bourgeoisie. She is very beautiful, posing between the trees and a cliff. You would think she was made of porcelain in her red and white cape. She smiles.

Au XX^e century, the painting belongs to the Rothschilds, Henri (1872-1947) or Philippe (1902-1988). In the late 1930s, when war approaches so close that it is declared between France and the German Reich, the family, targeted by anti-Semites for decades, must protect themselves or flee. Henri takes refuge in Brazil. Philippe is arrested in Algeria and stripped of his French nationality.

Safe in a trunk

The family, aware that things were going to get very bad, had sheltered what could be sheltered. Thus, “two boxes were deposited, we do not know exactly when, in the coffers of the Société Générale d’Arcachon,” explains Ophélie Jouan, doctoral student in the history of spoliations at the Sciences Po Paris history center. The deposit is in the name of Philippe de Rothschild.

“Two boxes were deposited, we do not know exactly when, in the coffers of the Société Générale d’Arcachon”

Like them, many art dealers and collectors protect their works far from the battlefields, so in the south, obviously, as far from the border as possible. The gallery owner Paul Rosenberg entrusts paintings to a bank in Libourne. The Rothschild family has ties to Arcachon. Is this why the coffers of the Société Générale of the seaside resort are chosen? Certainly.

After the defeat, the intrinsic anti-Semitism of the Vichy regime was immediately deployed. He appoints provisional administrators of Jewish property. And one of them, assigned to the properties of the Rothschild family, identifies the two cash boxes stored by the baron in the Arcachon bank. He informed Vichy by mail in November 1940. But Arcachon was an occupied zone and the Germans were also informed.

The Reich is wasting no time. By a decree of the Führer of July 15, 1940, the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), a section of the foreign policy office of the Nazi Party, was authorized to confiscate Jewish and Freemason property. Under the direction of the Devisenschutzkommando, a man named Braunmüller was sent to Arcachon by the ERR to get his hands on the two boxes. One of them contains the painting by Largillierre and also “The Girl at the Wheel”, painted around 1737 by Jean Siméon Chardin. Vichy, as usual, goes to bed. And the two paintings, as evidenced by a receipt, were transferred in February 1941 to the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris, “which had become the sorting station for works looted by the Nazis,” explains Ophélie Jouan.

Thanks to the Monuments Men

The “Portrait of a Woman, Half-length” was then stored at Neuschwanstein Castle, in southeastern Germany. At the foot of the Alps, this high-perched fortress designed by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in the 19th^e century is filled with 6,000 objects and works of art stolen from the territories occupied by the Reich.

In June 1943, the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Program was created within the American army, responsible for following the Allies in order to recover the works stolen by the Nazis (around 5 million). Their adventure was brought to the screen by actor George Clooney. Informed by Rose Valland (1898-1980), an art historian assigned to the Jeu de Paume who noted everything, they took over Neuschwanstein Castle on April 28, 1945.

Among the looted works, they discovered the painting by Nicolas de Largillierre. One of the famous photos of the Monuments Men shows them on the steps of the castle, holding stolen works in their hands. On the right in the image, American soldier Anthony Terra Valim holds “Portrait of a Woman, Half-length” in his hands. The painting was officially returned to the Rothschild collection on May 3, 1946. It was sold to its current owner in 1978.

And, to pay tribute to the extraordinary figure of Rose Valland, without whom many works would have disappeared, Christie’s has therefore chosen the sale of the painting by Nicolas de Largillierre, looted by the Nazis in Arcachon.