Overview
- The Paris museum opened the room Tuesday, creating France’s first permanent space focused on MNR works recovered after World War II.
- The museum also launched a provenance team of six Franco‑German researchers led by Ines Rotermund‑Reynard to track ownership and contact potential heirs.
- The gallery, titled “To whom do these works belong?,” hangs paintings so visitors can read stamps and labels on the backs that chart their paths into Nazi hands.
- Thirteen works are on view from the Orsay’s 225 MNR holdings, part of about 2,200 pieces nationwide that are held in trust for families rather than owned by the state.
- One centerpiece, an 1891 Alfred Stevens painting bought in Paris for Hitler in 1942 and later recovered by the Monuments Men, still lacks a known pre‑1942 owner or heirs.