A painting by 17th- and 18th-century French artist Nicolas de Largillière (1656–1746), looted by the Nazis and recovered in the famous Monuments Men photo, is coming up at auction at Christie’s Paris.
The work, titled Portrait d’une femme, à mi-corps, is one of three paintings seen in a historic April 1945 photo of the Monuments Men at Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle. James J. Rorimer, a museum curator-turned Army captain, is seen overseeing U.S. soldiers recovering a cache of 5,000 paintings and 20,000 other objects the Nazis had hidden at the site in Bavaria.
Much of that art had been sold under duress, if not outright stolen, in the Nazis’ efforts to confiscate all valuables belonging to Jewish people. Rorimer, who would go on to become the director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, was instrumental in the Army’s Monuments Men unit, which was dedicated to protecting cultural heritage during World War II, as well as recovering and returning stolen artworks and other artifacts. (Sadly, nearly 80 years after the war’s end, some families continue to seek restitution.)
The photograph became a symbol of that work, and appeared on the cover of the 2009 book The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, by Robert Edsel with Brett Witter. George Clooney directed and starred in the film version in 2014.
Nicolas de Largillière, Portrait d’une femme, à mi-corps. The Monuments Men recovered the painting, which the Nazis stole from Baron Philippe de Rothschild in 1940, from a Bavarian castle at the end of World War II. The moment was captured in a famous photograph. Photo courtesy of Christie’s Images Limited.
“The Monuments Men photographs taught the world about the Nazi spoliation,” Marc Porter, chairman of Christie’s Americas, told the New York Times. “This is not the story of a restitution of a work that’s enormously valuable, but it has the depth of the story and the history.”
The painting, which is being offered by an anonymous collector, has a presale estimate of €50,000 to €80,000 ($55,000 to $88,000) for the auction house’s “Maîtres Anciens: Peintures, Dessins, Sculptures” sale scheduled for November 21.
In the archival photograph, Sergeant Antonio “Anthony” T. Valim of California holds the Largillière. The Nazis stole the masterpiece from the bank vault of Baron Philippe de Rothschild in 1940. For most of the war, the Nazis stored the painting, along with thousands of other looted artworks, at the Jeu de Paume in occupied Paris.
The head of the museum, Rose Valland, was working as an Allied spy, taking detailed notes about where the Third Reich was transporting looted art—including 29 shipments to Neuschwanstein Castle. This was of key importance in the efforts of the Monuments Men, including their recovery of Portrait d’une femme.
The restored French government restituted the painting to the Rothschild family in May 1946. (The Baron survived the war after fleeing to London, but his wife, Élisabeth, died in concentration camp.) It remained in their collection until 1978. That’s when the current owner bought it at auction.
The artist’s auction record stands at €1.57 million ($1.85 million), set at Christie’s Paris in 2020, according to the Artnet Price Database. But another de Largillière work with a tainted provenance made headlines in 2022, when it sold for $1.23 million at Sotheby’s New York.
The painting, Portrait of a Lady as Pomona, traditionally identified as the Marquise de Parabère, was sold by the heirs of Jewish art collector Jules Strauss. His great-granddaughter Pauline Baer de Perignon wrote a book, The Vanished Collection, about coming to realize that her family’s art had been unlawfully seized, and fighting to get it all back.
The work, which is the artist’s second-highest auction result, was the first painting for which Baer de Perignon was able to secure restitution.