French Museum Launches ‘Wanted’ Campaign to Track Down 424 Artworks Looted by Nazis
The Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans in France has launched a “Wanted” poster campaign to help locate 424 artworks missing from its collection, many looted during World War II. Among the most prominent is a portrait of Charles-Nicolas Cochin the Younger (1715–1790) painted by Jean Siméon Chardin, taken during the German invasion of Orléans in June 1940 when an annex known as the Musée Paul Fourché was burned and ransacked and around 350 European paintings dating back to the 16th century were lost. Museum director Olivia Voisin said the campaign aims to publicize the history and enlist public help, and noted that the works are “inalienable and imprescriptible,” so the museum does not assign them market value. Voisin began new research two years ago to create a usable catalog of losses, and the museum reports that three paintings have been returned in the past two years.
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This story was covered in Museum Power Shifts and Restitution Manhunts