In a recent development in the ongoing saga of art restitution, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris was ordered to return a group of Impressionist paintings to the heirs of Ambroise Vollard, a French art dealer whose collection was distributed improperly following his death in 1939. After a decade-long legal dispute, the paintings are now slated to be sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York on May 16th.
The four paintings, including two by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, one by Paul Cézanne, and one by Paul Gauguin, will be sold with the proceeds split among Vollard’s legal heirs. The Gauguin, Still Life with a Mandolin (1885), is estimated to sell for between $10 million and $15 million, while the remaining three works are valued between $250,000 and $1.5 million.
The legal dispute over Vollard’s estate began after evidence emerged that some works in his 6,000-item collection had been improperly distributed by his relatives. Vollard’s brother, Lucien Vollard, who was appointed as the estate’s executor, sold works from the estate collection alongside Étienne Bignou and Martin Fabiani, who sold works to German museums, dealers, and Nazi officers. Bignou and Fabiani were later implicated in financial fraud.
Vollard’s heirs argued that Lucien’s business ties to Nazi officials make the sales of these artworks null and void, regardless of whether or not the dealings were made under duress. The heirs filed a lawsuit against the Musée d’Orsay in 2013, seeking the return of three paintings once owned by Vollard that still reside in the museum.
The sale of these four paintings is a common outcome for art restitution settlements, where the funds raised from public sales of artworks are split among legal heirs who share ownership. This case highlights the ongoing debate surrounding the restitution of artworks that were lost or stolen during WWII and raises important questions about the ethical considerations that must be taken into account when selling such pieces.
The return of these four Impressionist paintings to Vollard’s heirs marks an important victory in the ongoing struggle for art restitution. While the legal dispute may have taken over a decade to resolve, the sale of these paintings will allow Vollard’s heirs to finally benefit from their rightful ownership of the artworks. This case also serves as a reminder of the importance of ethical considerations when it comes to the sale and ownership of works of art.
