Eighty-four years after being stolen during the Nazi occupation of France, two 17th-century still lifes have been donated to the Louvre by the 48 heirs of a Jewish family.
The paintings, by Floris van Schooten and Pieter Binoit, were recovered after World War II and held by France’s national museums. After a complex investigation led by the CIVS (Commission for the Restitution of Jewish Victims’ Looted Assets), the works were returned to the Javal family’s descendants.
The Javal family’s private mansion was looted by the Nazis in 1944, but a clerical error in Nazi records delayed the recovery of the artworks.
A re-examination of archives recently corrected this mistake. The heirs unanimously donated the paintings to the Louvre in memory of five family members murdered in Auschwitz, with the intention of turning trauma into a memorial for future generations.
A conference titled Unknown at This Address: The Restitution of Two Paintings Taken from the Javal Family During the War will be held at the Louvre on 14 October 2024 to discuss the paintings’ history and their eventual return to the family.
