Confiscated by the Nazis... still not recovered. Eight works are still at the MusBA.
Many museums in France have works in their collections identified by the acronym ‘MNR’, which stands for ‘Musées Nationaux Récupération’ (National Museums Recovery).
Behind this designation (which also serves as the prefix for their inventory numbers) lies the turbulent past of these works of art, which were seized by the Nazi regime and then repatriated to France after the Second World War.
During the Second World War, nearly 100,000 items belonging mainly to Jewish families, Freemasons and opponents of the Third Reich regime were stolen by its dignitaries. Adolf Hitler personally entrusted the task of looting artworks to Otto Kümmel, curator of Germany's national museums.
The primary objective was to repatriate all works of art of German origin created since the 16th century, but greed led to the systematic looting of private and public collections in all countries annexed by the regime.
The Führer wanted to exhibit masterpieces of European art on German soil with a view to rewriting art history in line with Nazi ideology. Reflecting Hitler's delusional megalomania, a vast museum was also planned in Linz, Austria, the city where Hitler spent part of his childhood. The plans for this vast architectural complex, which was to be called the Führermuseum, envisaged housing more than 4,000 paintings!
The looted works not selected for the Linz project were transferred to other museum collections of the regime that were already promoting fascist ideology.
In France, in response to the cultural desecration suffered during the Occupation, some pieces from the national collections were evacuated from Paris and hidden in estates in the south-west of the country. Those that had already been seized in the capital were stored by the SS in the rooms of the Louvre, but the space quickly became too small and the Jeu de Paume museum, located on Place de la Concorde, was also requisitioned by the regime.
At the Jeu de Paume, Rose Valland (1898-1980), a curator and member of the Resistance, worked secretly and at the risk of her life to compile an inventory of the collections, tracking down these stolen works that had been deported to Germany. Her invaluable work in identifying and locating these works made it possible to recover many art objects after the defeat of the Third Reich.
In the aftermath of the Armistice, most of the looted works, as well as those acquired on the art market between 1939 and 1945, known to the Office of Private Property and Interests and the Artistic Recovery Commission, were recovered. In 1949, of the 61,233 objects returned to France, more than 45,441 were returned to their rightful owners or direct heirs. However, despite this significant restitution effort, more than 13,000 items were never claimed and were sold by the French state.
The administration kept only 2,143 looted objects. These were entrusted to the National Museums and recorded in provisional recovery inventories, hence the acronym MNR or ‘Musées nationaux récupération’ (National Museums Recovery) assigned to them. Displayed in various museums in France, works listed as MNR can be claimed at any time by their rightful owners, descendants or heirs, provided they have supporting documentation. Legally, as defined by the decree of September 30, 1949, these works do not belong to the State, which is only their temporary custodian.
The eight MNR paintings at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux have had an eventful history.
Eight of them were stolen and then sold on the art market between 1939 and 1944, except for Bernadus van Schijndel's Scène d'auberge (MNR 740), which was seized by the Möbelaktionbilder, a service responsible for recovering property abandoned in apartments deserted by families fleeing the Nazi regime. Before Hitler's defeat, Hercules at the Feet of Omphale by Gaspare Diziani (MNR 283) and Portrait of Richard Robinson by Sir Joshua Reynolds (MNR 335) were destined for the Führermuseum.
Between 1950 and 1951, when these works were repatriated to France, they were systematically assigned to the Louvre Museum by the Office des Biens et Intérêts Privés (Office of Private Property and Interests), then distributed among museums in France following a study of the needs of the collections and a reflection on the historical and cultural heritage of the cities.
The MusBA's MNRs were deposited between 1951 and 1956. These state deposits are mainly British works and reflect the historical links between the capital of Gironde and Great Britain.
These eight paintings were presented in 2012 in an exhibition entitled Art Victim of War. The Fate of Artworks in Aquitaine during the Second World War, curated by Florence Saragoza, then museum advisor at the DRAC Aquitaine. Alongside works from Bordeaux museums, those from all the museums in the former Aquitaine region were also exhibited. A catalogue accompanied the exhibition, placing these works in the context of the Second World War and revealing their tumultuous past.
Works listed as ‘MNR’ must be displayed to the public so that any researcher working on spoliation, or any potential rightful owner, can establish their provenance or come forward.
To increase their visibility, the museum alerts visitors to them on its website and in the exhibition rooms by means of a label bearing the inscription ‘Looted work, we are looking for its owner’, which appears on the labels of each of these works. This initiative is in line with the 80 works returned by all the museums in Aquitaine since they were deposited by the State in 1951.
