‘Exceptional’ Nazi-Looted Impressionist Masterworks Reclaimed From the Musée d’Orsay Could Fetch $25 Million at Auction

Three Impressionist paintings
stolen by the Nazis are heading to auction, having been consigned
by the heirs of a prominent French-Jewish collector. Two of
the works hung in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris until reclaimed from
France by the heirs of Gaston Prosper Lévy. The third emerged
in Cornelius Gurlitt’s Munich hoard.

The pointillist works by the
French artists Camille Pissarro and Paul Signac were looted by the
Nazis after Lévy fled
Paris for North Africa to avoid persecution in World War II. Lévy’s
heirs recovered two of the works from the Paris
museum in 2018, and a third was returned by
Germany last year. The canvases could fetch up to $25
million when they go on sale at Sotheby’s London next month.

Pissarro’s Gelée
blanche, jeune paysanne faisant du feu (White frost, young
peasant girl making fire) from 1888 is set to lead the sale, which
is due to take place on February 4. The painting is said to be
among the French artist’s greatest pointillist work. He took six
months finish the canvas, according to the artist’s
letters. The tour de force is expected to sell for up to £12
million ($15 million).

Thomas Boyd-Bowman, the head of Impressionist & Modern Art
Evening Sales at Sotheby’s London, said in a statement that the
works are testament to two great artists’ “persistent and
ultimately triumphant attempts to break new boundaries in
art—with every inch on their canvases a highly finished
kaleidoscope of perfectly chosen colour.”

Signac’s 1887 painting Quai
de Clichy. Temps Gris, which resurfaced in the Gurlitt
hoard, is estimated to sell for up to £800,000 ($1 million). It was
stolen from Lévy’s country home outside of Paris where he had
sent them for safekeeping. It ended up in the German art dealer
Hildebrand Gurlitt’s infamous collection somewhere between 1943 and
1947. He bequeathed it to his reclusive son, who hid it in along
with many other works in his Munich apartment. Cornelius Gurlitt’s
hoard of more 1,500 works was discovered in 2012. The Signac
work was the seventh painting in the hoard identified
by researchers as Nazi loot.
It was returned to Lévy’s heirs by German authorities last
July. 

Signac’s La Corne d’Or.
Matin (1907) depicts sailing ships anchored off
Constantinople, now Istanbul, with the dome and minarets of Hagia
Sophia glistening in the background. It has an upper estimate of £7
million ($9 million).

Lévy was a prominent
property developed and art collector in Paris in the 1920s and
1930s. He survived World War II by fleeing to Tunisia. While a
refugee in North Africa, his prestigious art collection was seized
by the Nazis. He died in 1977.

Boyd-Bowman told the Guardian: “It’s a pity for
the Musée d’Orsay to lose these paintings, but it’s a good example
of a country acting in an honorable fashion. It’s the right thing
to do.” He added: “Looting and vandalism should not profit
others.”

Sotheby’s global head of restitution, Lucian Simmons, said that
it is “honoured to have been chosen by Gaston
[Prosper] Lévy’s heirs to
offer these important paintings, and to tell the story of the
collector and his heritage.”

The post ‘Exceptional’ Nazi-Looted Impressionist Masterworks
Reclaimed From the Musée d’Orsay Could Fetch $25 Million at
Auction appeared first on artnet News.