The art market under the Occupation

Presented at the Lieu de Mémoire in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, this exhibition offers a historical and artistic overview that explores the grey areas of the French art market during the Occupation.

It follows on from previous exhibitions held at the Lieu de Mémoire: ‘Chagall, from one shore to the other’ in 2022 and ‘Thirteen months to save the artists: Varian Fry’s struggle’ in 2024.

During the Occupation, between 1940 and 1944, the art market in France experienced unprecedented activity. A veritable buzz of activity swept through all the traditional art circuits: studios, art galleries and auction houses, all of which sourced their stock on a massive scale from Paris.

Curated by Emmanuelle Polack, the exhibition traces the uniqueness of a situation without parallel in the history of the art market, through a journey combining concrete examples, previously unpublished archival documents and works of art that were looted and subsequently returned to their owners following lengthy legal battles.

Following the Second World War, France gradually developed a legal framework designed to provide redress for the anti-Semitic dispossession suffered mainly by Jewish families between 1933 and 1945. The Order of 21 April 1945 established the principle that sales carried out under duress by the occupying authorities were null and void.

More recently, Parliament took a further step forward with the adoption of Law No. 2023-650 of 22 July 2023 on the restitution of cultural property that was subject to spoliation in the context of anti-Semitic persecution between 1933 and 1945.
This framework law establishes a permanent exemption from the principle of the inalienability of national collections within the Heritage Code.