IMPORTANT NEWS: Germany Receives Significant Holocaust-related Art Claim in Decorative Arts.

[regine...@gmail.com]

Germany Receives Significant Holocaust-related Art Claim in Decorative
Arts.

For immediate release

Avignon, France – December 9, 2008 – Régine Elkan, a French national
residing near Avignon, France, filed a large Holocaust-related art
claim with the Coordination Office for Lost Cultural Assets
(Koordinierungsstelle fur Kulturgurverluste), a German government body
in charge of Nazi-looted art claims. The claim involves a prestigious
XVIIIth Century French Furniture collection looted during the Vichy
Regime in France, traced to the bequest of a large decorative art
collection, donated by Henriette BOUVIER to the Carnavalet Museum in
1966.

In 2002, Elkan filed a claim against the Carnavalet Museum for the
restitution of the “Bouvier” Collection with a French State
Commission in charge of Holocaust-related asset claims, the «
Commission d’Indemnisation des Victimes de Spoliations » (« CIVS »).
Following the CIVS refusal to consider the claim, Elkan filed a
lawsuit against the Office of the French Prime Minister, claiming that
the CIVS, the Carnavalet Museum, and the City of Paris refused to
disclose the provenance information of the Bouvier Collection.

Elkan then filed the claim with Germany because of the large trade in
French Fine Furniture between France and Germany, and because of
Bouvier’s role as a prominent decorative arts dealer during the Vichy
Regime.

For a copy of the claim letter, please contact Régine Elkan by E-Mail
at regine...@yahoo.fr.

Press Contact:
Requests for information can be addressed to:
By E-Mail to: Régine Elkan at regine...@yahoo.fr.