Vue d'exposition, Musée National Picasso Paris, 2015
This project follows in the footsteps of the work on artworks looted in France by the administration of the Third Reich, which began with the 2014 installation La Loi normale des erreurs. That installation featured an anonymous painted portrait surrounded by antique frames enclosing black panels, whose dimensions matched those of works cataloged by agents of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), originating from seizures involving major Jewish collectors or dealers such as Alphonse Kann, Paul Rosenberg, or the Rothschild family.
The ERR inventories include 89 works under the name of Picasso, who is among the most frequently cited artists, alongside painters like Fragonard, Delacroix, or Renoir. Some of these works—87 of which are precisely described—have not been restituted; several were destroyed during the bonfire that took place in front of the Jeu de Paume in May 1943, a few disappeared, and others passed through the hands of Hermann Göring during exchanges with the dealer Gustav Rochlitz, who was later severely condemned for his trafficking.
The project aims to make viewers reflect on the fate of these 87 works by an artist then in the middle of his career, considered "degenerate" while also being coveted by some of his detractors. The installation pairs a paper index, containing all the printed files related to the lootings in France, with its visual translation in volume. Across from the paper documentation, the paintings, prints, and drawings are evoked in the form of black plaques, distributed across the entire length of the room on the floor. Surrounded by a raw wood strip reminiscent of the cache-clous (nail-guards) Picasso used to protect his paintings before framing, these plaques bear the inventory number of the work whose dimensions they adopt, referring back to its index card.
Adjacent to the installation, the Portrait of Madame Rosenberg and her Daughter—which entered the Musée Picasso in 2008 by dation after having been looted, exchanged by Göring for works for his personal collection, and subsequently restituted—is installed on the wall. For the visitor, it constitutes the only immediately accessible work of the ensemble.
