The Louvre collaborates with Sotheby's on a research project

CAIRO – 30 January 2022: The Louvre Museum in Paris is conducting a three-year research project to restore property, especially works recorded in the museum's collection between 1933 and 1945.

This comes as part of an initiative sponsored by Sotheby's International Auction House.

According to a statement made by the museum, the deal allows for the allocation of funding from the auction house for ongoing research efforts at the Louvre, which "could lead to compensation," the auction house's funds will also support the potential digitization of research resources, seminars and publications, ARTnews reported.

As a result, the international auction house, Sotheby's, had established a compensation department in 1997, making the auction house the first to dedicate a department to this research field.

The department conducts reviews of works that are being considered for sale, often facilitating mediation processes between sellers and legal heirs auctioning restored works.

In an emailed statement to ARTnews, a Sotheby's spokesperson said the sponsorship deal marks the auction house's "first formal partnership" with a major organization on the compensation front.

In 2020, the museum commissioned historian Emmanuel Pollack to investigate some of the works in its collection acquired in the years leading up to World War II. He identified ten pieces in the museum's holdings that passed into the hands of a collector who fled Paris during the Nazi occupation.

About 14,000 qualified works will be checked for evidence. The works to be investigated are administered by the Louvre under the direction of the French National Museums.

These works are under temporary state care, are not legally owned by public groups in the country and are therefore under claims for restitution.