Alfred Lindon
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Alfred Lindon (born Abner Lindenbaum; – 1948) was a Polish jeweller from a poor Jewish background who became an expert on pearls. He married into the Citroën family and built an important collection of modern art that was looted by the
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
in occupied Paris during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. He lived to see some of his paintings returned, although others were returned to his heirs after his death.


Early life and family

Lindon was born Abner Lindenbaum around 1867 at
Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
in the
Grand Duchy of Kraków The Grand Duchy of Kraków (german: Großherzogtum Krakau; pl, Wielkie Księstwo Krakowskie) was created after the incorporation of the Free City of Cracow into Austria on November 16, 1846. From 1846 to 1918 the title, Grand Duke of Kraków, w ...
, a territory that is now in Poland. His father was Moses Lindenbaum, and his mother was Caroline Weil. He married Fernande Citroën (1874–1963), sister of the motor manufacturer
André Citroën André-Gustave Citroën (; 5 February 1878 – 3 July 1935) was a French industrialist and the founder of French automaker Citroën. He is remembered chiefly for the make of car named after him, but also for his application of double helical ...
, and they had five sons – Lucien, Maxime, Raymond, Maurice and Jacques. His grandson
Jérôme Lindon Jerome (c.347–420) was a priest, confessor, theologian and historian from Dalmatia. Jerome may also refer to: People Given name * Jerome (given name), a masculine name of Greek origin, with a list of people so named * Saint Jerome (disambiguat ...
(d. 2001), Raymond's son, became an important figure in French publishing."In 1940 Paris, there was little time to mourn the loss of art."
''
The Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The newsp ...
'', 17 January 2004. canada.com Retrieved 31 January 2015.
His great-grandsons are the journalist and writer Mathieu Lindon, and the actor
Vincent Lindon Vincent Lindon (born 15 July 1959) is a French actor and filmmaker. For his role in the film '' The Measure of a Man'' (2015), Lindon won Best Actor at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, Best Actor at the 41st César Awards and the IFFI Best Actor A ...
.


Career

Lindenbaum worked in the jewellery business, becoming an expert in
pearls A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living animal shell, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pea ...
. He was in partnership with Adolf Weil and Lewis Lindenbaum as a diamond merchant at 25
Hatton Garden Hatton Garden is a street and commercial zone in the Holborn district of the London Borough of Camden, abutting the narrow precinct of Saffron Hill which then abuts the City of London. It takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, a favourit ...
, London, and 48 rue La Fayette, Paris, where they traded as Lindenbaum and Weil. The firm had been trading since at least the early 1890s. In 1901 it was the buyer of a six-row Napoleonic necklace of
pearls A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living animal shell, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pea ...
for £20,000 at Christie's in London. That partnership was dissolved at the end of 1911. Thereafter, Weil and the Lindenbaums bid separately for expensive pearls in London auctions. In 1916, a Lindenbaum was the under bidder on a pearl necklace at Christie's that sold for £24,000. Lindenbaum changed his name to Alfred Lindon during the First World War as he thought that name would be more acceptable than a German-sounding name.''Painting Stolen During WW II Returned to France''.
National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
, 2 November 2006. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
He also abandoned his Polish nationality and became a British citizen.


Life in Paris

Provenance records suggest that Lindon began to be a serious buyer of art around the late 1920s or early 1930s.
Yeide, Nancy H. Nancy H. Yeide was the head of the Department of Curatorial Records at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from 1990 to 2017. She is a specialist in World War Two-era Provenance, provenance research, particularly relating to the Hermann Göring ...
(2009) ''Beyond the Dreams of Avarice: The Hermann Goering Collection.'' Dallas: Laurel Publishing.
In 2006, his grandson Denis Lindon (Raymond's son) remembered visiting Alfred at his home in Paris (Avenue FochM1944, p. 1102.
Records of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historical Monuments in War Areas (The Roberts Commission), 1943–1946. ''fold3''. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
) when he would have been in his 60s or 70s: "He was a ''bon vivant'', we should call him. He liked his food. He was rather fat because he ate too much. He was also fond of music and he read, but art was really the centre of his life." But there was another side to Lindon. Denis recalled that his grandfather "was always very anxious—he was very Jewish in that respect. He was worried about the future, always pessimistic". Denis put it down to his background. "He'd had a difficult youth and had the Jewish spirit—he was always thinking that things were going to be difficult. But maybe that saved his life because if he wasn't pessimistic maybe he would've stayed in Paris and ended up in Auschwitz."


Second World War

Lindon and his wife left Paris for London soon after the
German invasion of France France has been invaded on numerous occasions, by foreign powers or rival French governments; there have also been unimplemented invasion plans. * the 1746 War of the Austrian Succession, Austria-Italian forces supported by the British navy attemp ...
in 1940. They travelled from Liverpool to Montreal, Canada, on the RMS ''Duchess of Atholl'', departing on 17 August 1940. They eventually arrived in America where they remained for the rest of the Second World War. Before leaving Paris they placed their collection of art in the care of the rue Cambon branch of the
Chase Manhattan Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fina ...
, possibly because America was not then at war with Germany and they believed that their possessions would be safe in an American bank. The Chase bank was one of the few American banks that continued to trade in France after the German occupation. Presumably unknown to the Lindons, the manager of the Paris branch,
Carlos Niedermann Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewher ...
, had close links with the Nazi regime. Soon after the Nazis reached Paris in June 1940, the ''Devisenschutz-Kommando'' (Commando for the Protection of Currency), raided the Chase bank looking for currency. They found instead Lindon's paintings which they seized. These were later transferred to the
Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg The Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce (german: Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg or ''ERR'') was a Nazi Party organization dedicated to appropriating cultural property during the Second World War. It was led by the chief ideologue of the Nazi Par ...
(ERR), the chief looting organisation of the regime, whose job was to trawl occupied territory for art and antiques to transport back to Germany for Hitler's planned
Führermuseum The ''Führermuseum'' or ''Fuhrer-Museum'' (English: Leader's Museum), also referred to as the Linz art gallery, was an unrealized art museum within a cultural complex planned by Adolf Hitler for his hometown, the Austrian city of Linz, near ...
and the collections of top Nazis such as
Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...
. Among the paintings taken by the Nazis was
Édouard Vuillard Jean-Édouard Vuillard (; 11 November 186821 June 1940) was a French painter, decorative artist and printmaker. From 1891 through 1900, he was a prominent member of the Nabis, making paintings which assembled areas of pure color, and interior s ...
's ''Le Salon de Madame Aron'' (1911–12) an important ''intimisme'' work that provides an insight into middle-class life in France in the early 20th century. The painting was not returned to Lindon's heirs until 2006 after the
National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...
identified it as a work with an incomplete
provenance Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...
and advertised its existence. Alfred's son, Jacques, an art dealer, twice denied that the painting had belonged to his father before the French authorities released new information from German records taken at the time which proved that the painting had belonged to Alfred. As none of his approximately 15 descendants could afford to buy the others out, the painting was auctioned by Christie's in New York in 2006, selling for $912,000.SALE 1722 Lot 35.
Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...
. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
News: National Gallery to return painting looted by Nazis (Piece is first plundered art found in Canada).
lootedart.com. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
Also taken was
Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
's ''La rue Montorgueil, à Paris. Fête du 30 juin 1878'', which entered the Göring Collection via the ERR in 1941. It depicts the patriotic scene in
rue Montorgueil Rue Montorgueil () is a street in the 1st arrondissement and 2nd arrondissement (in the Montorgueil-Saint Denis-Les Halles district) of Paris, France. Lined with restaurants, cafés, bakeries, fish stores, cheese shops, wine shops, produce stan ...
on the day of a feast that was a precursor to the current
Bastille Day Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In French, it is formally called the (; "French National Celebration"); legally it is known as (; "t ...
. It was recovered in ItalyYeide, p. 464, D78. after the war and displayed at a special exhibition at the ''
Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume Jeu de Paume ( en, Real Tennis Court) is an arts centre for modern and postmodern photography and media. It is located in the north corner (west side) of the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. In 2004, Galerie Nationale ...
'' in 1946 of recovered art. It is now in the
Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...
.Claude Monet ''La rue Montorgueil, à Paris. Fête du 30 juin 1878''.
Musée d'Orsay. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...
's, ''Flowers in a Vase'', also from the Lindon collection, was one of 25 pictures from various sources exchanged by Göring for
old master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...
works from Galerie Fischer in 1941.Yeide, pp. 447 & 458 D36. Édouard Vuillard, Le Salon de Madame Aron, 1911-12.jpg, Édouard Vuillard, ''Le Salon de Madame Aron'', 1911–12 Monet-montorgueil.JPG, Claude Monet, ''La rue Montorgueil, à Paris. Fête du 30 juin 1878'', 1878 Van Gogh - Glas mit Feldblumen.jpeg, Vincent van Gogh, ''Flowers in a Vase'', 1890


Post-war

Family grave in Batignolles_Cemetery_(Paris)..html" ;"title="Paris.html" ;"title="Batignolles Cemetery (Paris">Batignolles Cemetery (Paris).">Paris.html" ;"title="Batignolles Cemetery (Paris">Batignolles Cemetery (Paris). Lindon and his wife returned to Paris after the end of the Second World War in time to see some of their paintings recovered. According to Denis Lindon, who lived with his parents and siblings at his grandfather's home after the war, the contents were intact as the Gestapo had set up office in the building. His grandfather's tapestries and 18th-century furniture were still there, and only the paintings were missing. Alfred Lindon died in 1948.


Notes and references


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindon, Alfred 1860s births 1948 deaths Jewish art collectors Subjects of Nazi art appropriations Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom