Corinne Hershkivitch at her office in Paris, June 23, 2021.
The full history of the Dorville auction might have remained secret had it not been for Emmanuelle Polack, a 56-year-old art historian and archival sleuth. The key to her success in discovering the provenance of works that suspiciously changed hands during the Nazi Occupation was to follow the money.
Their presence is still an embarrassment for France. After World War II, about 61,000 stolen paintings, sculptures and other artworks were returned; the postwar government swiftly turned over 45,000 of them to survivors and heirs, but sold thousands more and kept the funds. The ones that remain in French museums are sometimes known as the “orphans.”
“No one, not my grandparents, not my parents, ever talked about the war,” she said. “The story was transmitted through the unspoken, and there is nothing worse than the unspoken.” Polack already had made her reputation abroad, as a member of an international task force in Germany following the discovery of around 1,500 works squirreled away by Cornelius Gurlitt, whose father, Hildebrand, bought artworks for Hitler.
Dorville’s heirs contend that the sale of his artworks was forced under the wartime anti-Jewish laws, making it an illegal act of “spoliation” or looting. They argue that, had the government given them the proceeds from the auction, perhaps the five family members who perished at Auschwitz might have found a way to survive.
However, because of the Louvre’s involvement, the French government decided that the 12 works bought by the museum should be returned to the Dorville heirs. At the same time, since the government did not declare the sale illegal, several French museums that bought or were given nine additional works from the auction will get to keep them. Under Culture Ministry rules, the Louvre cannot comment on the decision.
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