The spoliations do not cease to make concentric circles in the contemporary period.
After the Bauer affair, around a Pissarro, or the Gimpel affair, around two paintings by Derain, another Pissarro will find himself at the heart of a legal standoff.
He will oppose Léone Meyer, adopted daughter of Raoul, director of Galeries Lafayette from 1944 to 1970, and the Oklaoma museum, in the United States.
It will take place from December 8, before the French courts.
At stake: the maintenance in France of
La bergère reentrant des moutons
, acquired by Raoul Meyer in the 1930s and currently exhibited at the Musée d'Orsay.
And the culmination of a long quest for Léone, aged 81, on behalf of her father, and the reparation that history owes her.
Read also: Pissarro, an anarchist under the apple trees
Pissarro's canvas was part of a collection of works of art assembled by this enlightened lover of Jewish art.
Under the Occupation, the Meyer couple found refuge with a family of farmers in Cantal, and Raoul joined the resistance.
He tries to shelter his belongings in a safe from the Crédit foncier de France, in Mont-de-Marsan.
But the safe was looted by the Germans in 1941 and the collection was scattered in opaque conditions, as were many other works of art belonging to Jews at the time.
In two years, more than 200 collections will be stolen and dispersed thanks to the complicity of a swarm of intermediaries and crooked art dealers.
From hand to hand
After the war, Raoul embarked on research to find his collection of impressionists.
He spotted the
Shepherdess
in Switzerland, in 1951. But the businessman may bring a lawsuit against the one who detains him, the Swiss courts consider that there is limitation, and refuse its restitution.
Then, the painting was acquired by another merchant, the American David Finlay, a rather troubled character that we will come across in another case of Jewish spoliations, that of the
Picking of Peas
(Bauer against Toll).
In 1957, a couple of collectors Aaron and Clara Weitzenhoffer, in turn acquired it in New York from the gallery owner.
On the death of his wife in 2000, Aaron Weitzenhoffer bequeathed 33 impressionist paintings to the Fred Jones Jr Museum at the University of Oklahoma, including
The Shepherdess Returning Sheep
.
"At the time, no research from was done by the American museum, which had the obligation" is
astonished Ron Soffer, lawyer of Mrs. Meyer.
However, the table appears in the directory of looted property, published in 1947, which was already accessible.
One day in 2012, Léone spotted the Pissarro on the Internet.
She therefore decides to bring a first legal action against the University of Oklahoma, in order to recover her father's Pissarro.
A long standoff
At the end of a first long standoff, the American University finally agreed to an amicable settlement in February 2016. It was accompanied by an unprecedented agreement: if the University recognizes the ownership of the Meyers, it is expected that
La shepherdess
is exhibited in a French museum, in this case Orsay, for five years, then that she commutes every three years between Paris and Oklaoma.
A rather strange clause finally provides that, during her lifetime, Léone Noëlle Meyer must bequeath the canvas to a French museum, which must respect the back and forth movements of the painting.
Since then, Léone Meyer would like to donate it to the Musée d'Orsay - which has so far refused, on the grounds that the planned rotations are complicated to organize and dangerous for the painting.
However, he must find a solution.
Because otherwise, upon his death and according to the 2016 agreement,
“the painting will be permanently transferred to the US art program in
American
embassies”
.
The story could not end there, thanks to a judgment of the Court of Cassation dating from July 2020.
“In the lawsuit led by the Bauers against the Toll spouses, around another Pissarro also stolen under the Occupation, the Court considered that the sales of property looted under the Occupation, including successive ones, and including when they were made in good faith, had to be declared void, ”
recalls Ron Soffer.
In other words, the purchase of
La Bergère returning her sheep
to Switzerland in the 1950s, then to New York, is nil.
And the Weitzenhoffer donation in 2000, too.
On this basis, Léone Meyer and her lawyer hope to succeed in breaking the 2016 agreement. In a public statement, the president of the University of Oklaoma, and that of the Foundation, is surprised at this "
inexplicable
"
turnaround.
, and highlights their "
good faith
".
They also say they are ready to face "
this unjustified threat
" before the American and French courts.
The Shepherdess
is not yet ready to return to the fold.
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