Bernheim-Jeune

Opened on Rue Laffitte in 1863[1] by Alexandre Bernheim (1839-1915), friend of Delacroix, Corot and Courbet, it changed location a few times before settling on Avenue Matignon.

[2] In 1901, Alexandre Bernheim, with his sons, Josse (1870–1941), and Gaston (1870–1953), organized the first important exhibition of Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris with the help of art critic Julien Leclercq.

[8] Like other Jewish families such as Réné Gimpel, Adolphe Schloss,[9] Anna Jaffé,[10] Raoul Meyer,[11] Armand Dorville,[12] Alfred Lindon,[13] David David-Weill,[14] Alphonse Kann,[15] Paul Rosenberg, Bernheim had to labor for several decades to recover some of the paintings, the task made more difficult as two record ledgers had disappeared from the gallery during the looting.

[16] In 1940 sensing that they, of Jewish background, would be targeted by the Nazis, the Bernheim-Jeune family had sent 30 or so impressionist and post-impressionist paintings to the Château de Rastignac in Dordogne for safekeeping.

In 2022, Maurice Utrillo's "Carrefour à Sannois" which had been looted in 1940 during the Nazi occupation of France from a cousin of Josse and Gaston Bernheim-Jeune, Georges Bernheim,[21] was restituted to the heirs after a long legal battle.