Dorville, Armand (Nachlass/estate)

Armand DORVILLE

Armand Isaac Dorville (1875-1941) was a lawyer at the Court of Appeal of Paris, a former member of the Bar Council, a Knight of the Legion of Honor and a renowned art collector, highly esteemed in the Parisian art market and museum circles.

Threatened as a Jew by the anti-Semitic policies introduced by the Germans and the Vichy regime as early as September 1940, he was forced to flee his Parisian apartment to seek refuge in the "zone libre" (free zone). He settled in Dordogne, taking the 450 works in his collection with him.

Upon his death in July 1941 and according to the terms of his will, Armand Dorville's brother and sisters inherited the usufruct of his property, with his nieces were granted bare ownership. Armand Dorville's heirs, all of whom were Jewish, were then under increasing threat from anti-Semitic policies.

It was in this climate of fear that Armand Dorville's estate was opened, while his friend and collaborator Jacques Pfeiffer, designated as the executor of the will, was held captive in Germany.

Released in November 1941, Jacques Pfeiffer took charge of the estate proceedings and organized the sale of the works from Armand Dorville's collection by public auction, both to try and prevent them from being looted or Aryanised by the Vichy authorities, and to finance the escape of family members to Spain or Switzerland.

On 24, 25, 26 and 27 June 1942, the auction of Armand Dorville's collection of paintings, drawings and sculptures was held at the Hotel Savoy in Nice.

Unfortunately, alerted to this initiative, the Commissariat Général aux Questions Juives (General Commissariat for Jewish Affairs) appointed a provisional administrator, Amédée Croze, on the first day of the sale, with the mission of Aryanising the assets of the Dorville estate.

The presence of this provisional administrator deprived the Dorville heirs of any possibility to express their will during the sale. At the end of it, the collection was entirely dispersed, and all proceeds were seized by the provisional administrator.

The heirs were thus deprived of the funds that could have ensured their survival. Shortly after the sale, one of Armand Dorville's sisters, her two daughters and their two young daughters aged two and four were arrested in Megève, deported to Auschwitz and murdered.

It was only recently, thanks to research conducted by art historian and provenance researcher Emmanuelle Polack, that the legal heirs of Armand Isaac Dorville, identified by the genealogy firm ADD Associés, were able to assess the extent of the spoliations suffered by their family.

In 2020, the German government, represented by its Minister of Culture, Monika Grütters, returned three paintings from the Dorville collection to their rightful owners.

The German federal government issued a press release in which it acknowledged the spoliatory nature of this sale, which occurred in a context where the Dorville heirs, "even if they had succeeded in putting the works up for auction, were nevertheless deprived of the proceeds of the sale so desperately needed in times of persecution. Through the intermediary of a sequestration administrator, the auctions were carried out under the control of the Vichy government."

Works returned to the Rightful Heirs of Armand Dorville:

● Works returned by the French government in 2022:

N°85 : Jeune Femme et sa duègne, Constantin GUYS, plume, encre brune, crayon noir, aquarelle, lavis brun, 26 x 22 cm

N°135 : Présentation du visiteur, Constantin GUYS, crayon noir, encre brune, lavis brun, plume, 22 x 36 cm

N°147 : Cavalier et Amazones, Constantin GUYS, crayon noir, lavis brun, aquarelle, 23 x 31 cm

N°149 : La loge de l'Empereur, Constantin GUYS, vers 1855/1860, aquarelle, avec reprise partielles à la plume et encre noire, restauré en 1999, 21 x 34 cm

N°150 : Une revue aux Invalides, Constantin GUYS, plume et aquarelle sur calque, 20 x 33 cm

N°153 : Portrait de Joseph Prudhomme et de Henry Monnier, Henry MONNIER, 1873, crayon noir, encre brune, aquarelle, fixatif, plume, 28 x 22 cm

N°155 : Les trois matrones, Henry MONNIER, aquarelle, mine de plomb, 18 x 25 cm

N°164 : Les visiteurs, Henry MONNIER, encre rouge, aquarelle, mine de plomb, plume, 15x16 cm

N°165 : Une soirée chez Mme X, Henry MONNIER, vernis, aquarelle, 23 x 31 cm

N°200 : Jeune femme debout sur un balcon, contemplant des toits parisiens, Jean Louis FORAIN, crayon noir, pinceau, sanguine, aquarelle, 29 x 22 cm

N°372 : La diligence en danger, Camille ROQUEPLAN, 1829, vernis, aquarelle, 19 x 31 cm

N°433 : L'Amazone, Pierre Jule MENE, 1865, cire originale, 45 x 42 x 14 cm

● Works returned by the German Minister of Culture, January 2020:

N°176 : Portrait de femme de profil, Jean-Louis FORAIN, huile sur toile, 35x26cm

N°182 : Femme en robe du soir, Jean-Louis FORAIN, vers 1880, aquarelle, 21 x 20 cm

N°123 : Amazone sur un cheval cabré, Constantin GUYS, 13,90 x 11,50 cm

• Works returned by museums, auction houses, and individuals, via restitution or compensation agreements:

N°145 : Le carrosse royal en grand apparat, Constantin GUYS, plume et lavis, 25 x 40 cm (October 2020 – via Christie’s)

N°364 : La promenade royale, Denis-Auguste-Marie RAFFET, aquarelle, 23 x 17 cm (March 2021 – via Christie’s)

N°356 : Verglas / Vision d’hiver, Anonyme / Attribué à Giuseppe de NITTIS, vers 1880, 30 x 40 cm, huile sur toile (March 2021 – private individual via Wetterwald & Rannou-Cassegrain)

N°362 : Une place à la Roche-Guyon, Camille PISSARRO, 1867, huile sur toile, 50 x 60 cm (October 2021 – Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin)