Louvre Hopes New Exhibit Of Nazi-Looted Art Will Help Find Owners
The Louvre Museum in Paris has a new permanent exhibit: paintings stolen by the Nazis during the Nazi occupation of France, CNN reported.
More than 1,700 paintings that were recovered from Nazi looting hang on the walls of the Louvre, but the 31 paintings in this special exhibit are unique: They have yet to be reunited with their owners.
“These paintings don’t belong to us. Museums often looked like predators in the past, but our goal is to return them,” Sebastien Allard, the head of the paintings department at the Louvre, told the AP.
Though the Louvre has a long-standing program of returning looted artwork, it is laborious, and requires the claimant to provide proof. Since 1951, only 50 pieces have been returned to their original owners.
“People who come forward need, for instance, to establish the proof that the artwork belonged to their grandfather,” Allard said. “They need to find old family pictures and payment slips, or gather testimonies. It can take years.”
World War II saw roughly 100,000 pieces of art looted from France by Nazis. About 60,000 pieces were recovered, with most going back to their original owners.
Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30