Paris (AFP)
The Paris Court of Appeal on Wednesday condemned the state to return three paintings by the Fauvist painter André Derain to the heirs of René Gimpel, a great collector of Jewish art looted during the Second World War.
According to the judgment consulted by AFP, the court reversed the judgment of the Criminal Court, which in August 2019 had refused the return of the three works, painted between 1907 and 1910 and kept at the Museum of Modern Art in Troyes and at the museum. Cantini from Marseille.
There are "precise, serious and concordant indices" according to which the three paintings are indeed those which have been looted and "whose sale is null", in application of the order of April 21, 1945, writes the court in its decision.
At first instance, the court ruled on the contrary that there remained "persistent uncertainties as to the identification of the paintings", which have traveled, changed names and sometimes been re-lined over the decades.
"It's great", welcomed the lawyer of the heirs, Me Corinne Hershkovitch, to AFP, who had started in 2013 with the museums.
"The court followed us on points that we had put forward and we are very happy to be recognized", she added.
The descendants of the Parisian gallery owner are still waiting to recover all of the works looted or disappeared in the tumult of the war.
After years of investigation, they claimed to have found the Derains, acquired by their grandfather during the sale of the Kahnweiler collection in 1921 in Paris.
They demanded from the Ministry of Culture the return of these paintings, "Paysage à Cassis", "La Chapelle-sous-Crecy" and "Pinède, Cassis".
René Gimpel, one of the greatest art collectors of the early twentieth century, resistant, had fled Paris in October 1940 for the French Riviera.
Arrested in 1944 and deported to the Neuengamme camp, he died in January 1945.
Between the first instance decision and the appeal, the heirs appointed "two researchers of the provenance of works of art to establish a scientific report based on the study of archival documents from the Gimpel family and public archives available ".
The court considers that this "very important work, which the first judges did not have, made it possible to rectify previous errors and to specify various elements allowing a better knowledge of the works in question".
In her motivations, she evokes a series of documents - notes, photography, inventory book - in an attempt to retrace the tortuous route of the works.
One of them, "Paysage à Cassis", for example was sent to New York, then London, before returning to Paris.
The museum of Troyes was put out of cause at first instance, being only a simple "assignee" and not owner of the paintings, registered in the national collections.
The museum "takes note of the decision" and "stresses that it has always cooperated with the heirs", reacted Wednesday the lawyer of the establishment, Me Béatrice Cohen.
"The City of Troyes recalls that it obviously subscribes to the policy of restitution of looted property".
alv / pa / dch
© 2020 AFP