What is known about Yves Perdoux? Quite a lot actually.
The OSS Art Looting Investigation Unit mentioned the name "Perdoux" seven times in its 1946 Red Flag List. The investigators refered to the "Wendland, Lohse, Perdoux art dealing syndicate" and the "informal dealers’ syndicate composed of Wendland, Perdoux, Boitel, Dequoy"...Hector Feliciano mentioned him in The Lost Museum in 1995.
More recently, Kenneth D. Alford's Hermann Goring and the Nazi Art Collection: The Looting of Europe's Art Treasures and Their Dispersal After World War II (ISBN-13: 978-0786468157) refers to Perdoux quite a few times as well. (It's easy to find all the mentions with the searchable Kindle version).
Perdoux in a provenance is a signal that more research is needed.
His name is linked to Hermann Goering, Hans Wendland, Walter Andreas Hofer, Zacharie Birtschansky and Victor Mandl and more, as one can see below in these excerpts.
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| paintings at France MNR with Yves Perdoux in the provenance |
Perdoux in the 1946 OSS Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag Names list:
- Perdoux, Yves. Paris, 178 rue du Fbg St Honore/6 rue de Teheran/6 blvd Flandrin. Operated the Galerie Guynot. One of the most active collaborationist dealers. Close associate of Wendland, Boitel and Loebl. Ardent Nazi, constantly in touch with Dietrich and other German buyers. Interrogated in 1945 by the Police Judiciaire. Reported ill and near death in January 1946.
- Boitel, Achilles (deceased). Paris, 6 rue de Teheran/11 bis rue Ampere. Wealthy French industrialist and speculator, who acted as Wendland’s French agent after the Swiss made it impossible for him to leave that country. Chief financial figure in the Wendland, Lohse, Perdoux art dealing syndicate. Worked with Lohse and Hofer, and was a good friend of von Behr. Connected with Hofer in exchanges of Swiss and French francs. Open collaborator who was often in Germany before the war and spoke fluent German. Assassinated by the French Resistance.
- Thierry. Villefranche sur Mer, Villa ‘Le Miradou ‘, ave Gauvin Paris, 75 rue d’Auteuil. Collaborationist dealer, active in Paris and Nice. Worked with Brueschwiller, Ward Holzapfel and Mme Soyer, his mistress. Sold to Rochlitz, Perdoux, Aguilar, Moebius, and others.
- Garin, Ernest. Paris, 9 rue de l’Echelle. Formal proprietor of the Galerie E Garin, aryanised in this name by Ali Loebl. The Garin firm actually succeeded Kleinberger’s and under Loebl becamse centre of the informal dealers’ syndicate composed of Wendland, Perdoux, Boitel, Dequoy, etc. Garin personally played a relatively minor part in the business of the firm during the occupation. Indicted by French Government (Seine Tribunal, Judge Frapier).
- Guynot, Henri. Neuilly Paris, 178 rue du Fbg St Honore. Gallery directed by Perdoux. Dealt with Hofer and Lohse. Sold to Haberstock; documentary evidence in Unit files.
- Loebl, Ali (Allen). Paris, rue des Pyramides/9 rue de l’Echelle/34 quai de Passy. Dealer, of Austro-Hungarian Jewish descent. Director and leading spirit of the firm Kleinberger & Co, ‘aryanised ‘ under the name of E Garin during the war. Centre of the informal art dealing syndicate comprising Wendland, Perdoux, Mandl, Boitel, Dequoy, Engel. Sold chiefly to Lohse, Hofer and Haberstock, for whom he travelled as agent in unoccupied France. Contact of Mohnen, Landry, Mestrallet. Indicted by the French Government (Seine Tribunal, Judge Frapier).
- Mandl, Victor. Paris, 9 rue du Boetie. German refugee dealer, formerly active in Berlin. Highly important figure in German art purchases in Paris. Close contact of Wendland, Dietrich, Voss, Goepel, Muehlmann, Lohse, Loebl, Perdoux, Birtschansky and Wuester. Indicted by French Government for collaborationist activity.
Yves Perdoux is also included in the list of Art dealers involved in wartime trading in looted art in France
***Yves Perdoux in the News
1999Libération: NYMPHÉAS». LE MARCHAND JUIF ROSENBERG AVAIT ÉTÉ SPOLIÉ DE CE TABLEAU EN 1940. Par Vincent Noce — 30 avril 1999
Au printemps 1940, au moment de fuir par l'Espagne il avait remisé cent-soixante tableaux en Gironde, dans sa villa de Floirac et dans les coffres de la Banque nationale du commerce à Libourne. Parmi elles, les Nymphéas mais aussi des chefs-d'oeuvre aussi importants que l'Homme à l'oreille cassée de Van Gogh. Informés sur dénonciation de deux antiquaires, le comte de Lestang et Yves Perdoux, les nazis investissent la villa le 15 septembre 1940. Les délateurs recevront trois Pïssaro pour leur peine.
2016
Le Figaro La famille Bromberg retrouve son tableau, volé pendant la guerre - Par Journaliste Figaro Claire Bommelaer
16 June 2018
"Le premier jour de printemps à Moret", by Alfred Sisley--Part Two
by Marc Masurovsky
Thirty years elapsed before Mr. Perdoux allegedly acquired the Sisley painting. There is nothing to indicate that he bought it from Durand-Ruel. This could be the same Perdoux as Yves Perdoux, a notorious Parisian art dealer who collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of France and denounced the locations of a number of Jewish-owned art collections, including that of Paul Rosenber
***
Yves Perdoux in German Lost Art Foundation: Beteiligte Privatpersonen und Körperschaften am NS-Kulturgutraub, Lost Art-Datenbank, Modul "Provenienzrecherche", NS-Raubkunst
Paris; 178 rue du Fbg Saint-Honoré, 66 rue de Teheran, 6 bd Flandrin; Leiter der Galerie Guynot, einer der aktivsten Kollaborateure, enger Kontakt zu Hans Wendland, Boitel, Loebel und Kontaktperson von Almas-Dietrich in ParisQu.: ALIU, Final Report, 118
Yves Perdoux in Site Rose-Valland Musées Nationaux Récupération
Portrait d'homme Collection du consul Edouard F. Weber, Hambourg, 1909 ; vente Weber, Berlin, 10-22 février 1912, n° 99. Collection M. Bromberg, Hambourg. Collection Victor Mandl, Wiesbaden. Collection G. Wildenstein, Paris, 1939 (selon annotations relevées dans les dossiers du RKD).
Le panneau est acheté 18 750 RM à Yves Perdoux, Paris, par la galerie Almas Dietrich le 22 février 1941 (provision Jurschewitz 600 RM) et revendu 35 000 RM en mars 1941 au musée de Linz (1) ; il est enregistré le 15 juillet 1945 au Central Collecting Point de Munich sous le n° 4416 et renvoyé en France le 3 juin 1949 (2).
Il est attribué au musée du Louvre (département des peintures) par l'Office des Biens et Intérêts Privés en 1950 (3).
Puis il est déposé au musée des Beaux-Arts de Chambéry en 1960 (D 63-1) (4).
Le panneau a été restitué aux ayants-droit d’Hertha et Henry Bromberg le 28 novembre 2016.
Perdoux in Hermann Goring and the Nazi Art Collection: The Looting of Europe's Art Treasures and Their Dispersal After World War II
[Göring]..." was represented in Paris by Hofer, Bornheim, Lohse, Angerer and Dr. Joseph Muehlmann, who made regular trips to Paris and stayed as long as two or three months at a time. Göring’s purchasing activity was enormous, as validated by the Carinhall shipping tickets in the files of Schenker Transportation Company. Wendland was most active in Paris, capitalizing upon his German citizenship in a land occupied by Germans and upon his wide prewar acquaintance with those in the Paris art market, Wendland became a kind of advisor and guide to many of the French dealers anxious to do business with Germans. He gradually formed an informal syndicate of the French dealers Boitel, Perdoux, and Loebl. He was connected with the Dequoy-Fabinai combination, and he is known to have had interests in the Mandl-Birtschanksy art association."
"Added to the established dealers came a flock of intermediaries and middlemen to guide the Germans. They all worked together and the same pieces of art turned up at different places at different times with a higher price. The most important of these groups was headed by Hans Wendland and Paris art dealer Yves Perdoux. They all had connections to Hermann Göring, through Wendland and Hofer, as Wendland represented Göring in the Greater Reich and Perdoux with his contacts throughout France. - Hermann Goring and the Nazi Art Collection: The Looting of Europe's Art Treasures and Their Dispersal After World War II
(there's more, Kindle version recommended for easy search facilities)
Library References and Authority Files for Yves Perdoux
There is no ULAN ID for Yves Perdoux, however other authority files exist for him:SNAC http://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6vz0cb8
Epithet: antique dealer, of Paris
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000149.0x000094
Permalink: http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vz0cb8
Ark ID:w6vz0cb8
SNAC ID: 46357420
Yves Perdoux in Ownership History of Paintings or Provenance
Louvre
Boston Museum of Fine Art
Provenance
... March 17, 1923, Bamberger sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 49, to Trotti et Cie., Paris. 1924, Yves Perdoux, Paris [see note 4]. 1926, Goudstikker, Amsterdam (stock no. 1667) [see note 5]. 1927, Howard Young Galleries, New York (stock no. 2573); 1927, sold by Howard Young Galleries to John Taylor Spaulding (b. 1870 - d. 1948), Boston; 1948, bequest of John Taylor Spaulding to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 3, 1948)
(Also in Getty Provenance Index Public Collections:
Provenance of Paintings Record 10611
GOYA Y LUCIENTES, FRANCISCO JOSÉ DE
Portrait of a Man
Boston, MA, Museum of Fine Arts
48.558
canvas
Perdoux, Yves (?). Paris, France)
Detroit Institute of Arts
Still Life with Dead Hare, ca. 1760
Provenance
Mme. Becq de Fouquières (Paris, France);
May 8, 1925, (Hôtel Drouot, Paris, France) lot 17 [pendant was no. 18, purchased by Yves Perdoux];
M. Sherematieff (Paris, France);
Dr. Wendland (Basel, Switzerland);
purchased by (Kleinberger Galleries, New York, New York, USA);
November 1926, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
(update ongoing..)
