Egyptian Torso
An ancient Egyptian sculpture stolen by French collaborators, handed over to German Nazis then reappeared in the private art market in 2013.
The “Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg” [ERR] known as “Special Task Force Rosenberg” ordered the confiscation of tens of thousands of art objects from Jews and its agents catalogued and inventoried them at its principal processing station for plundered art, the Jeu de Paume museum in central Paris. One of those objects was an ancient Egyptian torso from the 30th dynasty, although the ERR specialists ascribed it to the 26th dynasty. The object was tagged as part of the so-called Möbel-Aktion [MA], a sweeping operation launched by the ERR in 1942 which aimed to empty out the contents of Jewish-owned apartments in Western Europe. More than 30,000 apartments were thus ransacked in the Paris region alone. The ERR used the label MA-AEGY to denote the fact that the object had been confiscated during Möbel-Aktion and been certified as an Egyptian antiquity.
Shortly after it was processed, the torso was shipped to an ERR depot at a castle in Seissenegg, near Amstetten in Austria. Western Allied forces recovered it and repatriated it back to France as Soviet forces were closing in on Amstetten. (Bundesarchiv Koblenz B323/298a)
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The staff of the ERR database project was unaware of any pre-war owner for this object until 2013 when it reappeared on the private art market. In response to a query about the provenance of the object, the existing information pointed to an absence of evidence that it had been returned to its rightful owner. Further investigations showed, however, that there was a link between this object and the Bernheim-Jeune art dealers and collectors, foremost in their profession in interwar Paris. A closer examination of the restitution claim filed by the family’s heirs after war’s end pointed to an object which was similar in description to that catalogued by the ERR staff at the Jeu de Paume. It was deduced that this was one and the same object, restituted to the family in 1950 (AMAE, La Courneuve, France).
Current photographs of the object confirmed that it was the same as the one listed in the ERR database as MA-AEGY 1. Lastly, the Répertoire des Biens Spoliés, the French consolidated list of cultural losses during WWII, confirmed that this object had been looted.
It turns out that the object was not a Möbel-Aktion piece but one that had been stolen by French fascists from the Bernheim-Jeune residence in Paris and handed over later to agents of the ERR. It seemingly became commingled with other antiquities stored at the Jeu de Paume and forgotten until catalogued in the fall of 1943.
The confiscation history of this object is important because it highlights the fact that the Möbel-Aktion campaign quickly morphed into a massive bureaucracy of plunder in and through which objects looted prior to Möbel-Aktion were incorporated into its cataloguing and inventorying activities.
The object will appear in the JDCRP database with the following fields:
| Owner: | MM. Bernheim-Jeune — Paris, France |
| Collection: | (MA-AEGY) Möbel-Aktion Aegyptisches |
| Inventory No.: | MA-AEGY 1 1-4 [ex-MA-ASI 104] Kiste Nr. MA-AGY 1 |
| Artist: | 663-525, 26 Dynastie, Aegypten |
| Medium: | Antiquities |
| Title: | Maennlicher Torso |
| Description: | Grüner Schiefer Stehende[r]
Figur mit herabhaengenden Armen, bekleidet mit Lendenschurz. Es fehlen Kopf, linke Schulter und linker Arm, sowierechter Arm von Armansatzab, linkes Bein vom Knie, rechtes Bein vom Hüftansatz ab. Auf der der Füllung zwischen Körper und Arm erhalten. Auf dem Rücken pilaster artig vorkragend 4-reihige Hieroglyphen-Inschrift. Diesez. T. zerstört und unvollsaendiginfolge des fehlenden Unter körpers. Die Inschriftbesagt, das sessich beidem Dargestellten um einenhohen Zivilbeamtenhandelt (sein Name muss sich auf demfehlendenTeilbefundenhaben), den Sohneines Zivil- und Militaerbeamten, eines Armeeführersnamens Psammetieh, anlaesslichdessen Todesdiese Statue “Walcher” geschaffenwurde. Es folgtein Aufzaehlung von Stellungen, Titel und Würden, die der Dargestellteeinnahm, alsz.B., Erbprinz, Pascha, Chef einer Südprovinz, Chef der zwei Pfortenzur Wüste des Südens, Chef eines Nomes von…, Hauptgünstling des Herrn der 2 Welten, Vertrauter des Pharao…, |
| In Paris: | 1.10.1943 |
| Literature: | This Egyptian torso was reproduced in a publication entitled “L’Artmoderne et quelques aspects de l’artd’autrefois: cent-soixante-treize planches d’après la collection privée de MM. J. & G. Bernheim-Jeune: poèmes de Henri de Régnier, I-II, GalerieBernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1919, p. 5 (vol. I), pl. 173 (vol II).” |
| Provenance and Comments: | Ernst Adalbert Voretzsch, a leading German egyptologist affiliated with the ERR weighed in on the description of this object. This piece was recently sold as a 30th dynasty Egyptian torso on Wednesday 5 June 2013 by Boisgirard-Antonini Drouot (lot No. 72) in Paris, France. |
| Archival Sources: | RG 260 M1943 Reel 12 NARA; Bundesarchiv, B323/298a; RV 103, MAEE, Paris, France |
| Measurements: | 60 cm |
| Intake place: | Jeu de Paume |
| Intake date: | 1943-05-10 |
| Transfer place: | Seissenegg |
| Transfer date: | 1943-11-18 |
| Repatriated to France? | Yes |
| Restituted? | Yes |
| Restitution date: | 1950-06-14 |