Restitution proceedings successfully concluded with the involvement of ADD
Representatives of the community of heirs, the Clemens Sels Museum and the Coordination Office for Provincial Research of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Important painting remains in the Clemens Sels Museum in Neuss
Several years ago, ADD Associés, our partner company based in Paris, successfully identified the heirs of Armand Dorville, a Jewish art collector. He had died in 1941. Around 400 works of art from his collection were subsequently put up for auction in Nice in 1942. Dorville had fled to his castle in the Dordogne in June 1940 shortly before the Germans invaded Paris. As a childless collector, he had appointed his siblings and their children as heirs, who were also persecuted. The proceeds from the forced auction of the art collection were withheld from them. It is possible that the money would have enabled the family to flee abroad. Five family members were arrested in 1944 and murdered in Auschwitz.
Excerpt from the program of the event on 24 April 2024 at the Clemens Sels Museum in Neuss
The Clemens Sels Museum in Neuss, near Düsseldorf, has now been able to keep a painting looted by the Nazis following an amicable agreement with the heirs. The work, a painting by the French painter Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940), was symbolically handed over to the museum. Originally, the city council had decided to keep the painting "La Promenade. Le square des Batignolles" (1898/99), which had been part of the museum's collection since 1962, back to the heirs. However, a compensation agreement enabled the museum to keep the work of art.
Evening event with the participation of ADD HOLSTEIN
The ceremonial act of the symbolic handover to the museum and the subsequent press conference on April 22, 2024 were attended by representatives of Armand Dorville's heirs, the Mayor of the City of Neuss, the Minister of Culture of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and other guests - including the managing directors of ADD Associés and ADD HOLSTEIN. The museum then hosted a panel discussion on the subject of restitution. The managing director of ADD HOLSTEIN Erbenermittlung, Jan-Mathis Holstein, gave a lecture on the topic of "Genealogy and Provenance Research".
Own department for provenance research in Paris
The French partner company of ADD HOLSTEIN Erbenermittlung GmbHADD Assocíes, has its own department for provenance research. This department not only researches unknown heirs, but also identifies cases of looted art, traces the whereabouts of individual works of art and enforces legal claims.
Further information on this restitution case can be found, for example, in the Süddeutsche Zeitung and in the press release of the Kulturstiftung der Länder.