Among the descendants of Alfred Lindon (1867-1948), we find the actor Vincent, the writer Matthieu, the publisher, Jérôme (now deceased), a French branch, a so-called American branch, a few elders and a a host of young people.
It is within this latest generation that Justin, in his relaxed thirties, stands.
In the name of all the others, almost driven by a mission, he set himself the goal of getting his hands back on a Sisley painting stolen from his great-great-grandfather.
“He seized this story with passion because he had a sensitivity to the fine arts, but above all because he felt that it was the right thing to do,”
testifies, with a touch of admiration, his grandmother Hélène, 87 years old.
A film editor in real life, a job made up of mishaps but also empty days, Justin MacKenzie Peers threw himself headlong into family papers, passed down from generation to generation, and into archive rooms.
In this month of February 2024, he is unfailing on the details of this dark affair, which involves his family, the Christie's auction house, a Swiss gallery owner and a large ranks of lawyers.
On Justin's laptop there is a photo of Alfred Lindon, dating from the 1930s. Cigarette in mouth, the latter poses in his Parisian living room on Avenue Foch with, above his head, three paintings.
“Do you see the biggest one
?
It’s
First Day of Spring in Moret
, a work by Sisley that he had bought before the war
,” shows the young man.
The tranquility released by this black and white shot is only a distant memory.
Looted by the Germans in 1940, the Sisley on Avenue Foch was, eighty-four years later, under sequester in Basel.
The case…
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