Restitution and donation of two still lifes to the Louvre

5/6/24 - Restitutions and acquisitions - Paris, Musée du Louvre - Very often a work of art returned to the (many) heirs of a family looted during the war ends up on the art market: since it is impossible to give a piece to everyone, it is better to sell it.
This was not the case this time: two seventeenth-century still lifes were part of the MNR (Musées nationaux Récupération - National Recovery Museums - works of art looted by the Germans during the Occupation and listed on a specific inventory following the artistic recovery operations (1945-1950)), kept in the Louvre’s Nordic paintings department since 1951. They were finally returned to their forty-eight rightful owners, the heirs of Mathilde Javal, who decided to donate them to the museum. From today, 5 June, this donation will…