Berlin (AFP)

A Berlin museum returned on Monday, then bought back from its beneficiaries, a painting by the French impressionist painter Camille Pissaro looted by the Nazis during the Second World War.

Entitled "Une Place à la Roche-Guyon", this painting had already been exhibited since 1961 by the Alte Nationalgalerie, located on the museum island of the German capital and devoted to German art of the 19th century and to the French impressionists.

To keep the painting in its collections, the museum compensated the family of collector Armand Dorville, a French lawyer and art collector of Jewish faith who died in 1941 and whose heirs had many works confiscated by the Vichy regime. who had auctioned them off.

Some of them were acquired by museums, others by private collectors.

Most of the Dorville family were killed in the war.

"I am very grateful to the heirs of Armand Dorville for making possible the purchase of the work for the Alte Nationalgalerie and for coming to Berlin especially for this purpose", said Hermann Parzinger, President of the Foundation. of the Prussian Cultural Heritage (SPK), which manages this museum in Berlin.

He did not disclose how much the museum paid for the painting, but said the family wanted it to remain on display to the public and the deal was made in a spirit of "good cooperation."

"It is a reparation with regard to a family and it allows this family to look a little more serenely towards the past", declared Antoine Delabre, genealogist at ADD Associés and representative of the heirs. Dorville.

The museum had bought the work of art in 1961 from a London gallery but specifies that "for the period between the auction of 1942 and the cession of 1961, the provenance is not always known".

Produced in 1867, the canvas with a format of 50 centimeters by 61 acquired by Dorville in 1928 represents the city center of this commune of Val-d'Oise, in the Paris region.

The director of the Alte Nationalgalerie, Ralph Gleis, presents the painting "Une place à la Roche-Guyon" by the painter Camille Pissaro, October 18, 2021 in Berlin CHRISTOF STACHE AFP

This is the fourth return of a painting to the Dorville family by Germany.

In January 2020, three paintings were returned to the heirs of the French collector, from the huge collection of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of an art dealer from the time of the Third Reich.

© 2021 AFP