The two paintings a Paris dealer sold to escape

Grégoire Schusterman dealt in art on Avenue Kléber in Paris until his gallery was closed in 1940 under the Vichy regime’s antisemitic laws. He sold works to finance his flight and support himself during the occupation. Among them were Renoir’s Cariatides, with figures painted into fictive architectural niches, and Sisley’s Les Péniches, a river scene also known as Vue d’un port.

Both canvases were recovered from Germany after the war. The Renoir eventually went on deposit to the Renoir Museum at Cagnes-sur-Mer and the Sisley to the Château-Musée de Dieppe. The Musée d’Orsay says Schusterman tried to recover his works after the war. The authorities rejected restitution at the time because the paintings had been sold between French dealers before passing to German buyers.

One of the heirs renewed the claim in 2022. France’s restitution commission examined the conditions under which the dealer had sold and found in 2023 that the sales had been forced by persecution. The prime minister approved restitution on 11 April 2024. The museum returned both paintings to the heirs at a ceremony on 16 May.