Return of a lost work: La Plaine, Cassis-sur-mer (1913) by Henri Manguin

Actively invested in searching for lost cultural property, the Cnap national fine arts centre celebrates the return to France of a work that had disappeared nearly 75 years ago. On 11 December 2024, the painting La Plaine, Cassis-sur-Mer by Henri Manguin (1874-1949) was returned to the French state by the German company Bayer AG, with the canvas consigned to and subsequently presented at the MuMa André Malraux modern art museum in Le Havre, as part of a new exhibition. 

Acquired by the state and entrusted in 1916 to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, this painting by Manguin had disappeared during the Nazi occupation, during which period the ministerial building was occupied by the German army. In December 1950, Bayer AG acquired the artwork from the Kunstverein fur Rheinlande und Westfalen de Düsseldorf, an institution then directed by Hildebrand Gurlitt, an art dealer implicated in the selling of plundered works. Today, the painting’s recovery marks an important step in the historical reconstitution of collections scattered during conflicts, notably the Second World War. 

In like manner, certain artworks belonging to public French collections, such as that of the Cnap, had disappeared before finally resurfacing, often as part of private collections, during exhibitions or sales, as public auctions or sales by antique dealers. The Cnap collection is no exception to this phenomenon of reappearing artworks – a phenomenon that has become more marked these past few years, with an increasing number of claims and restorations. In the space of 5 years, 32 works from the Cnap collection have thus rejoined France’s public art heritage. 

This struggle against the dispersion of national artistic heritage that has singularly taken shape since the late 1990s has progressively raised the awareness of all artworld professionals, encouraging the improved traceability of artworks. In addition to monitoring the art market, the Cnap strives to establish a context favourable to restitutions, by collaborating with museums, art-market professionals, and police services, as well as with artists and their rights holders. Very often, the holders are not aware of the illegal provenance of the artworks in their possession; in such cases, the works’ rightful ownership must be proven, notably through archival work, and a claim must be made. If the inalienable, unseizable and imprescriptible nature of national collections allows, where appropriate, the initiation of legal proceedings, the Cnap still favours an amicable discussion that usually allows for the works’ recovery.

Le Paysage marin by Jean Carzou 

Jean Carzou (1907-2000), the Syrian artist of Armenian origin living in France, presented one of his seascapes at the 58^th Salon de la Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1947. The painting was acquired by the French state, then consigned the following year to the government offices of French Guinea in Conakry. However, subsequent to Guinea’s achieving of independence in 1958, no trace of this seascape was to be found in the archives. No report or document explained its disappearance, and no mention was made in the successive inventories carried out at the French embassy in Conakry, to which the painting could have been transferred. 

In 2022, new research allowed the Cnap to identify an artwork put up for sale in 2000 in Lyon, presenting characteristics similar to those of the lost canvas. The investigation therefore began despite the absence of any archives or detailed catalogues from the auction house, the auctioneer having ceased his activities to become a consultant. The only essential document that he had kept was the sale statement mentioning the names of the seller and the buyer. 

The Cnap managed to reach an agreement with the auctioneer and so obtain the purchaser’s identity. At the same time, the Cnap consulted the sales catalogue conserved at the INHA national institute of art history, but this did not contain any reproduction of the painting, making any comparison impossible with the photograph provided by the artist in 1947. The Carzou Foundation, then in the process of dissolution, could be of no assistance. 

The photographs provided by the artwork’s holder, a Swiss resident, confirmed that this was indeed the same work, as well as revealing that the back of the canvas no longer had the usual marking indicating state ownership, no any inscriptions. The subsequent complicated negotiations finally allowed for the artwork’s recovery, with the support of the Consulate General of France.

Searching for artistic heritage: a collective endeavour 

The Cnap relies upon the active involvement and vigilance of artists’ rights holders, representing a precious resource due to their intimate knowledge of the artists’ oeuvres and the families’ archives. Recent collaborations with descendants of the painters Francis Harburger (1905-1998) and Louis Neillot (1898-1973) have allowed for the recovery of three paintings. These works had disappeared from their consignment locations (the Fine Arts Museum of Orleans and first the Ministry of Social Affairs, then the Ministry of Health) in uncertain circumstances. Two of the paintings had passed amongst art dealers who provided no information regarding their provenance, while the third painting was held by private individuals, prior to their being entrusted to the Rossini and Philocale auction houses.

In such cases, the Cnap must collaborate with the auction houses and rights holders to facilitate the works’ recovery. It draws up a documentary dossier based upon all available archival elements relative to the work’ history and their acquisition by the French state, prior to pursuing an open and transparent dialogue with the interested parties. This approach amounts to simplifying the works’ restoration, while favouring a consensual and effective resolution, and also encouraging all parties’ involvement in the recovery process. 

An artwork’s disappearance is often complicated to unravel, especially for older consignments. While certain works may have been stolen, it often happens that a work disappears due to negligence in its handling, with the object’s heritage value perhaps having been progressively forgotten, or with the consignor not notified of its successive transfers or relocations. Furthermore, the traditional marking by the Fine Arts Administration, with labels placed upon the back of the canvas or upon the underframe, have perhaps been erased, either intentionally or accidentally. However, the work’s provenance can usually be retraced even in the absence of any such marking. 

In the case of La Sainte-Famille by Louis Janmot (1814-1892), a subtle composition destined for the chapel of the Maubeuge hospice, acquired from the artist by the French state in 1868 at the Salon des Artistes Vivants (Paris), inventorying revealed the work’s disappearance. Yet, the canvas had not left the town of Maubeuge, for it was held by the religious congregation of the Sœurs de Sainte-Thérèse d’Avesnes. 

In 2021, seeking to sell off several of its objects, the congregation sold the painting to a regional antique dealer, who a few months later entrusted the work to the Artcurial auctioneer. A photograph in the sales catalogue caught the attention of the Lyon Fine Arts Museum, ever attentive to sales of works by this artist and itself housing several of his creations and notably the exceptional ensemble Le Poème de l’âme. The museum’s attention was caught particularly by the frame’s cartouche, on which was inscribed: ‘Given by the Emperor / 1868’. This phrase, employed by the Fine Arts Administration up until 1882, designates a state consignment, often from the Cnap collection. 

Alerted by the Lyonnaise museum, the Cnap obtained from Artcurial the painting’s removal from the sale and provided the work’s holder with the documentary dossier proving its ownership by the state. Following its recovery, the painting’s restoration was entrusted to the C2RMF research and restoration centre of the museums of France, prior to its presentation at the Musée d’Orsay as part of the Louis Janmot. Le Poème de l’âme exhibition. Today, this painting has been consigned by the Cnap to the Lyon Fine Arts Museum, as part of its permanent exhibition.

Le Drame Lyrique by Jean-Alexandre-Joseph Falguière (1831-1900) 

This work, commissioned by the French state in March 1897 for the Opéra-Comique, was consigned in 1898 to the Boieldieu Grand Vestibule of the new edifice, constructed following a terrible fire. The statue joined the compositions by such illustrious artists as Luc-Olivier Merson, Albert Maignan, Henri Gervex, and Benjamin-Constant, all commissioned to glorify this particular musical genre. Le Drame Lyrique stood alongside an allegory of La Musique by Denys Puech. Withdrawn in 1932, for its iconography then seemed out of step with the opera’s artistic policy, the sculpture joined the reserve collection of the Fine Arts Administration. It was subsequently sent to Angers on long-term loan in 1936. But at the end of the Second World War, the work was lost. Laurent Falguière, great-grandson and rights holder to Jean-Alexandre-Joseph Falguière, who had begun researching the work of his ancestor, turned his attention in 2016 to the missing marble Le Drame Lyrique. His documentary research at the Musée d’Orsay put him on the path of a sculpture photographed in the reserve collection of the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. 

Two very factual details specified by period documents confirmed the similarity between the work consigned to Angers and the work held in Berlin: on the tree trunk, the artist had engraved in the hollow of the stone a graffiti representing a hand stabbing a heart with a dagger – a detail described in an article of L’Événement of 3 February 1899; also, an alteration to the violin’s scroll mentioned in the local press upon the sculpture’s installation in Angers (Le Petit Courrier of 10 October 1937). 

Following a presentation during a colloquium on ‘The Women of the Opéra-Comique’ (‘Le Drame Lyrique Allegory Sculpted by Alexandre Falguière’) held on 22–3 September 2021, Laurent Falguière and the Opéra-Comique playwright Agnès Terrier contacted the Alte Nationalgalerie of Berlin, as well as the Cnap through Anne Pingeot. The museum and the Cnap were thus brought into contact. It would take three years to confirm the work’s restoration to the Cnap. On 10 December 2024, the sculpture finally left the Nationalgalerie - Staatliche Museen of Berlin, to return in 2025 to the vestibule of the Opéra-Comique for which it had originally been acquired.

The Portrait d’Anatole France by Kees Van Dongen: an unresolved dossier, for an ongoing claim 

Certain claims prove rather more complicated, such as that for the Portrait d’Anatole France painted by Kees Van Dongen (1877-1968) in 1921. Acquired by the public collection following its sale at the Salon du Franc auction held in 1926 at the Palais Galliera, this work would embark upon an unusual journey. Consigned to the Jeu de Paume Museum in 1927, it was borrowed by the artist in 1931 for a monographic exhibition, but was never returned. 

In 1932, the painting entered the private collection of Dr Roudinesco, after having been unduly resold by Van Dongen himself. The efforts of the then curator to recover the painting were interrupted by the Second World War and the affair was subsequently forgotten. The work left France for New York, where it was acquired by the Henry Ford trust in 1968, during a sale dedicated to the Roudinesco collection. 

Over five decades later, the work was rediscovered in 2021 during a sale in London at Christie’s, entrusted by the heirs with overseeing the dispersion of the Ford collection. Ever since then, the Cnap and the French Ministry of Culture have been carrying out sustained efforts for the work’s recovery. 

However, these efforts have been met with only silence on the part of the Ford trustee, who refuses any dialogue. If no progress is made via the amicable attempts pursued since 2021, a complicated judicial procedure will represent the only possible solution. This emblematic case underlines the need for strengthened international cooperation and a suitable legal framework, to overcome the challenges of heritage recovery.