French documentary: Looted paintings: the quest of a lifetime

The French television channel France2 has just aired an extremely interesting documentary on "13h15 le samedi. Tableaux spoliés: la quête d'une vie"" (1:15pm Saturday: Looted paintings: the quest of a lifetime).

Link to view: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-magazine/france-2/13h15/13h15-du-samedi-7-avril-2018_2683382.html

 France2 : "13h15 le samedi. Tableaux spoliés: la quête d'une vie"" (1:15pm Saturday: Looted paintings: the quest of a lifetime).

The documentary follows the family members of three Jewish art collectors whose collections were seized during the Nazi occupation of France. As archives gradually open more than seventy years later, the younger generations attempt to discover what happened. They are helped by provenance researcher Emmanuelle Polack.

You can view the documentary here for the next week in replay. 

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-magazine/france-2/13h15/13h15-du-samedi-7-avril-2018_2683382.html

The first person to be filmed was the great niece of art collector Armand Dorville. Most of the family was deported and Dorville's collection was seized and auctioned off after his death by an administrator for the Commissariat général aux questions juives (since he was Jewish). The younger generation did not know about the existence of the art collection until researcher Emmanuelle Polack discovered a 1942  auction catalogue.

Where are the 175 paintings that once belonged to Armand Dorville now?

Some of Dorville's paintings showed up in the Gurlitt collection and, as the documentary shows, in at least one French museum. 

Google did not exist back then but it does now. 
Here are a few of the responses to a search on "Dorville":

• http://arts-graphiques.louvre.fr/detail/oeuvres/0/31273-Une-revue-aux-Invalides

http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/joconde_fr?ACTION=RETROUVER&FIELD_98=AUTR&VALUE_98=GUYS%20Constantin&NUMBER=62&GRP=0&REQ=%28%28GUYS%20Constantin%29%20%3AAUTR%20%29&USRNAME=nobody&USRPWD=4%24%2534P&SPEC=1&SYN=1&IMLY=&MAX1=1&MAX2=1&MAX3=200&DOM=All

http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/joconde_fr?ACTION=RETROUVER&FIELD_98=AUTR&VALUE_98=GUYS%20Constantin&NUMBER=50&GRP=0&REQ=%28%28GUYS%20Constantin%29%20%3AAUTR%20%29&USRNAME=nobody&USRPWD=4%24%2534P&SPEC=1&SYN=1&IMLY=&MAX1=1&MAX2=1&MAX3=200&DOM=All

http://www.sothebys.com/fr/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/19th-century-paintings-n08847/lot.45.html

http://www.sothebys.com/fr/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.4.html/2012/19th-century-paintings-n08894
https://www.drouot.com/artiste/deveria-achille-1800-1857-_46254

http://www.lostart.de/Webs/EN/Datenbank/EinzelobjektKFM.html?cms_param=EOBJ_ID%3D478437%26_page%3D11%26_sort%3D%26_anchor%3Did76094
http://www.taskforce-kunstfund.de/fileadmin/object_records_excerpts%20/Forain_ORE_2016-01-08_478052.pdf

http://www.bundeskunsthalle.de/fileadmin/user_upload/01Ausstellungen/gurlitt/PM_Gurlitt_eng.pdf

https://www.kulturgutverluste.de/Content/01_Stiftung/DE/Veranstaltungsnachlese/2017/Tagungsbericht_franzoesisch.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=2

[PDF]Task Force Schwabing Art Trove/ Object record excerpt for Lost Art ID ...

www.lostart.de/Content/041.../_ORE/Forain_ORE_478052.pdf?__blob...v=10

Jan 28, 2018 - Provenance: (…) By latest 1933: Armand Dorville, Paris. Sale: Vente aux enchères du cabinet d'un amateur parisien, Hall du Savoy, Nice, 24–27 June 1942, no. 182, pl. XLIII. M./Mme. [?] Béatrice, Hôtel Royal, Nice, acquired at the above sale. (…) (Probably acquired by Hildebrand Gurlitt in France in the ...

see also NEWS from LOOTEDART.COM on the Jaffe, Dorville, and Gimpel searches

Les magazines de France 2

"13h15 le samedi". Tableaux spoliés : la quête d’une vie

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-magazine/france-2/13h15/13h15-du-samedi-7-avril-2018_2683382.html

For related documentaries, see also:

• The Mystery of the Modigliani Masterpiece - the fifth estate

•  Quand un Modigliani spolié refait surface dans les "Panama Papers"

• Stolen Legacy: Nazi Theft and the Quest for Justice

-----

published on 04/10/2018
modified on 01/23/2020
published by: Open Art Data
url: https://www.openartdata.org/2018/04/french-documentary-about-looted-art.html