The text aiming to restore 15 works was adopted to applause on Tuesday, January 25
Between emotion and seriousness, the National Assembly unanimously voted on Tuesday January 25 a bill for the restitution of 15 works of art, including a painting by Gustav Klimt and another by Marc Chagall, to the beneficiaries of Jewish families. plundered by the Nazis.
Faced with these rights holders, present in the gallery, the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot welcomed a “historic” text, validated to applause by 97 votes. It must be definitively adopted by the Senate on February 15.
The spoliation was “the negation of humanity (of these Jewish families), of their memory, of their recollections”, underlined the minister, in unison with speakers from all political groups.
A “historic” bill
Among the 15 works is “Rosiers under the trees” by Gustav Klimt, kept at the Musée d’Orsay, and the only work by the Austrian painter belonging to the French national collections. It was acquired in 1980 by the State from a merchant.
Extensive research has established that it belonged to the Austrian Éléonore Stiasny who sold it during a forced sale in Vienna in 1938, during the Anschluss, before being deported and murdered.
Eleven drawings and a waxwork kept at the Louvre Museum, the Orsay Museum and the Château-de-Compiègne Museum as well as a painting by Utrillo kept at the Utrillo-Valadon Museum (“Carrefour à Sannois”) are also part of the expected refunds.
“This is the first time since the post-war period that the government has committed a text allowing the restitution of works from public collections”
For 13 of the 15 works, the beneficiaries were identified by the Commission for the Compensation of Victims of Spoliation (CIVS), created in 1999.
Ms. Bachelot referred to a “historic” bill: “It is the first time since the post-war period that the government has introduced a text allowing the restitution of works from public collections” which were “looted during the Second World War worldwide or acquired in troubled conditions during the Occupation due to anti-Semitic persecutions”.