A painting of Pierre-Auguste Renoir which was looted by the Nazis during the Second World War will go on sale in France on December 5, with an estimated value of between 220,000 and 300,000 euros, after having been returned to its rightful owners after a first release on the market in 2023.
The painting, titled Washer and dated around 1916, it belonged to the former collection of Alfred Weinberger and will be auctioned in Paris by the Giquello and Hôtel Drouot auction houses, the latter reported in a statement.
Weinberger was a renowned art dealer who had to flee Paris at the beginning of the German occupation to take refuge in the town of Aix-les-Bains, near the Swiss border.
owned Washerwhich is a landscape of a woman among apple trees 31 centimeters high and 31 centimeters wide, from 1925.
“Before leaving, he took care of depositing several paintings, including five by Renoirin the Morgan & Cie bank in Paris, thinking that they would be safe there. Despite these precautions, the Nazi authorities seized them shortly after,” Drouot detailed in his message.
The painting ‘Lavouse’, which will be auctioned on December 5. Photo: Giquello
The paintings were seized and inventoried in 1941 to be initially deposited in the Parisian gallery of the Jeu de Paume. In 1942, the Nazi expert Bruno Lohse also listed the works for transfer to Germany by order of Hermann Göring.
The work was registered after the war in the French Registry of Looted Assets in the name of Weinberger.
Nowadays, The painting went to public auction in 2023after having been discovered for sale by the Giquello house.
It was acquired in good faith by a collector in the 1980s. in the Segoura gallery and the work had all the usual certifications (Wildenstein certificate and free circulation license from the French Museums Directorate).
This procedure, however, allowed the trace of its looting to be brought to light, with which “the Giquello house immediately canceled the sale and initiated a procedure with a specialized German law firm, which led to the restitution of the work to the Weinberger heirs,” the statement details.
The latter later decided to entrust the sale again to Giquello, who will take place at the Drouot headquarters on December 5.