A significant Holocaust-related art claim has been filed in Paris against a major French museum.

A significant Holocaust-related art claim has been filed in Paris against a major French museum.
For immediate release
New York, N.Y. -- May 22, 2002 -- A significant Holocaust-related art claim has been filed in Paris with a Government Commission in charge of Holocaust assets claims. For the first time, a Holocaust-related art claim involves a whole collection, which was donated during the 1960s to the Carnavalet Museum, located in Paris, FRANCE.

This art collection, one of the most prestigious XVIIIth Century French Furniture collections in the world, was donated by Henriette BOUVIER, an antique dealer, to the Carnavalet Museum, in 1966. The art claim was filed by a Jewish family stating that this collection actually belongs to an estate which was looted during World War II. This art claim is also significant in that it points out to a potentially large provenance issue in the French Furniture and Decorative Arts market. The claim indicates that any art item sold by Henriette Bouvier during the 1940s and now in possession of collectors or art dealers in the US may be considered of suspicious provenance.

This claim was filed on May 21, 2002 with the Drai Commission, a Government-appointed commission in charge of resolving all Holocaust-related claims covering assets in France. The Drai Commission was created in 2000 after the Matteoli Commission, a historical research and Government-sponsored body issued a research report in April 2000 on looting of Holocaust-related assets in France during World War II.

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