A Churchill painting that mysteriously fell into the hands of a Nazi collaborator is on show in London
The work—which was praised by Picasso—has taken an improbable route to an exhibition at the Wallace Collection
A painting by British statesman Winston Churchill that mysteriously found its way into the possession of a Nazi collaborator is currently on display in London. The landscape, titled "La Dragonnière, Cap Martin," has a murky provenance that may indicate its looting or theft during the Nazi occupation of France. The artwork was created by Churchill during a visit to the D’Estainville family's villa in the French Riviera in 1937, and was later given to the aristocrat René d’Estainville as a gesture of gratitude.
However, the fate of the painting after the German invasion in 1940 remains unclear. Several conflicting stories suggest that the picture was lent to a friend for an exhibition, sent over the border to Monaco, or even "stolen." Regardless, the painting eventually found its way to Parisian dealer Martin Fabiani, who was suspected of collaborating with the Nazis and having ties with the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg task force, responsible for looting art from Jewish owners during the occupation.
French art historian Emily Esser believes that the painting's new owner during the 1940s "benefited from the chaos and tumult" as it ended up in Fabiani's hands. La Dragonnière, Cap Martin was exhibited in 1945 at Fabiani's gallery to raise funds for the Stage Door Canteen, an organization that provided entertainment for Allied troops.
Picasso, a fellow artist, admired the Churchill landscape during the exhibition. After the war, Fabiani was arrested for selling art to benefit the German occupiers, and the French authorities seized the painting, including La Dragonnière, Cap Martin. The artwork was later acquired by Australian collector Edward Waterfield Hayward and sold in 1961 at Sotheby's in London.
It then changed hands several times, with its most recent sale in 2018 at Sotheby's for £358,000. The painting is now owned by an international private collector with a collection of major Churchill works. The director of the Wallace Collection, Xavier Bray, expresses concern about the painting's murky history and hopes that the new information may shed light on its wartime journey.
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