Federico Gentili Di Giuseppe

Federico Gentili Di Giuseppe, also known as Frédéric Gentili di Giuseppe (Vittorio Veneto, March 24, 1868 - Paris, April 20, 1940) was a Jewish businessman and art collector whose collection was looted during the Nazi era.[1]

Federico Gentili Di Giuseppe
Born24 March 1868
DiedApril 20, 1940(1940-04-20) (aged 72)
Children1

Early life

Federico Gentili di Giuseppe was born in 1868 into a wealthy Italian Jewish family, the son of Giuseppe and Carolina Gentili di Giuseppe. He married Emma de Castro, with whom he had two children: Marcello (born 1901) and Adriana (born 1903).

Translations and art collection

During the 1920s he moved to Paris. He translated Stendhal's writings into Italian and devoted much energy to collecting works of art and came to own 150 Italian paintings (including the famous Christ carrying the cross by Girolamo Romani).

In 1922 he bought a telescope built by Emile Schaër around 1910; this was given in 1946 to the Pic del Migdia Observatory by his son Marcel in gratitude for the protection offered him during the Second World War from 1942.[2]

Nazi seizures

In April 1940: Federico Gentili di Giuseppe died, leaving his two children, Marcello and Adriana Gentili di Giuseppe, who fled from Nazi occupied territory in June 1940. A French court ordered the seizure and sale of Gentili di Giuseppe's property, and the auction took place at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris in April 1941.[3][4]

Claims for restitution

In 1950 his daughter Adriana began trying to claim the return of the looted paintings from the Louvre after seeing them on display there, but the museum refused her requests repeatedly, in 1951, in 1955 and in 1961.[5]

In 1998, the heirs of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe sued the Louvre Museum in Paris for five artworks in a lawsuit known as Gentili di Giuseppe Heirs v. Musée du Louvre and France.[6] The appeals court ordered the restitution of the artworks to the heirs on June 2, 1999.[7][8] The paintings, which had been acquired by intermediaries for the Nazi Hermann Göring were: “La Visitation” by Moretto da Brescia (1498-1554); “La Sainte Famille” by Bernardo Strozzi (1581-1644); “Alexandre et Campaspe chez Apelle” by Giambattista Tiepolo (1669-1770); “Joueurs de cartes devant une cheminée” by Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749); and “Portrait de femme” by Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757).[9]

In 1999, Gentili de Giuseppe's heirs request the return of a bust by Francesco Mochi ("Bust of a Young Boy") from the Art Institute of Chicago. The bust had been sold in France in a sale that was later annulled by French judges because it was Nazi spoliation. The parties settled in 2000.[10]

In 2000, Gentili di Giuseppe's heirs contacted the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) Boston concerning the restitution of the painting “Adoration of the Magi”, by Corrado Giaquinto. The MFA had purchased the painting from Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd, which had acquired it at Christie's.[11] A settlement involving a "part purchase-part donation agreement" was reached in October 2000.[12]

In 2012 a judge in the case "Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged by a Rascal – Gentili di Giuseppe Heirs v. Italy"[13] ordered the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan return the 16th century Baroque painting to the heirs of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe. [14][15] Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged By A Rascal by Girolamo de Romani was one of 70 items stolen from the collection of Frederico Gentili di Giuseppe under the French Vichy Government.[16]

In 2022, in an interview about Nazi looted art, Corinne Hershkovitch talked about the challenges of researching the fate of the Gentili Di Giuseppe collection.[17]

See also

References
  1. Melikian, Souren; Tribune, International Herald (2001-09-08). "Ghosts of the Past Haunt a London Dealer (Published 2001)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2019-12-06. Retrieved 2021-03-17.
  2. "PG Astronomie - Le télescope T60". pg-astro.fr. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
  3. Drouot; Rheims Maurice > Commissaire-priseur; Haro R. > Expert; Haro E. > Expert; Filsjean André > Expert (1941-04-23), Succession de M. Gentili di Giuseppe (Première vente) ; Tableaux anciens par : Angelis, Bega, Berettini, Brouwer, Civerchio, Jacob Duck, Dusart, Ghislandi, Guardi, Magnasco [...] et principalement des écoles italiennes de la Renaissance et du XVème siècle et hollandaise du XVIIème siècle ; Dessins, aquarelles, gouaches, pastel par : Greuze, Giacomo Guardi, Le Guerchin, J.-B. Huet, Montagna, V.-J. Nicolle, Parmesan ; Enluminures, bronzes, statuettes, cartel, pendules ; Extrême-Orient : inros, coffrets, céramiques ; Objets divers : important service en pâte tendre de Sèvres avec assiettes décorées du chiffre royal ; Sculptures : marbres, terres cuites par ou attribuées à : Amadeo, J.-B. Carpeaux, Le Bernin ; Sièges et meubles principalement en acajou, en marqueterie ; Paravent en laque de Coromandel ; Piano 1/4 de queue Stenway ; Vitrines en glace ; Tapisserie des Flandres, tapis de l'Orient et de la Perse ; L'ensemble de l'époque de la Renaissance à l'époque Louis XVI ; Vente à la requête de Me Moulin, administrateur judiciaire, Hôtel Drouot, salles n°10 et 11 réunies, les mercredi 23 et jeudi 24 avril 1941, à 14 heures, Drouot ; Impr. Lahure, Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, collections Jacques Doucet, retrieved 2021-03-17
  4. "CLAIMS RESOLUTION TRIBUNAL:dans le cadre du Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation Affaire Numéro CV96-4849" (PDF). 2004-03-02. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2004-03-02. Retrieved 2021-03-17.
  5. "Five Italian Paintings – Gentili di Giuseppe Heirs v. Musée du Louvre and France — Centre du droit de l'art". plone.unige.ch. Retrieved 2021-03-17.
  6. "Five Italian Paintings – Gentili di Giuseppe Heirs v. Musée du Louvre and France — Centre du droit de l'art". plone.unige.ch. Retrieved 2021-03-17.
  7. "Five Italian Paintings – Gentili di Giuseppe Heirs v. Musée du Louvre and France — Centre du droit de l'art". plone.unige.ch. Retrieved 2021-03-17.
  8. Melikian, Souren; Tribune, International Herald (2000-02-05). "Magic Recipe for Old Master Sales". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-03-19. Not even the label of the Louvre saved Bernardo Strozzi's splendid "Holy Family" from being bought in as the hammer fell at dollars 320,000. (It hung in the Louvre until the museum, in 1999, was ordered by a French court to return the masterpiece to the heirs of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe, an Italian Jewish collector whose treasures were the object of a forced sale in Paris in 1941.)
  9. "Five Italian Paintings – Gentili di Giuseppe Heirs v. Musée du Louvre and France — Centre du droit de l'art". plone.unige.ch. Retrieved 2021-03-17.
  10. "Buste d'un jeune garçon – Héritiers Gentili di Giuseppe et Art Institute de Chicago — Centre du droit de l'art". plone.unige.ch. Archived from the original on 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
  11. "Ownership Resolutions". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Archived from the original on 2013-03-10. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
  12. "Adoration of the Magi – Gentili di Giuseppe Heirs and Museum of Fine Arts Boston — Centre du droit de l'art". plone.unige.ch. Archived from the original on 2016-02-11. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
  13. "Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged by a Rascal – Gentili di Giuseppe Heirs v. Italy — Centre du droit de l'art". plone.unige.ch. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  14. "6 February 2012 US Federal Judge orders return of Romanino painting 'Cristo Portacroce' to the heirs of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe, a Jewish man who died shortly before the German occupation of France in World War II. On 18 April 2012 it was returned by the US authorities". www.lootedart.com. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  15. "'You have righted a wrong': 70-year battle for Italian masterpiece over as painting finally returns to Jewish owner's heirs". www.lootedart.com. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  16. "Nazi-looted 474-year-old painting returns to heirs". www.lootedart.com. BBC. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  17. Hershkovitch, Corinne; Ivanoff, Hélène (2022-12-01). "Défendre les droits des familles spoliées sous le nazisme". Allemagne d'aujourd'hui. No 242 (4): 172–176. doi:10.3917/all.242.0172. ISSN 0002-5712. S2CID 254668530.
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