An exhibition about the influential art dealer Paul Rosenberg (1881-1959), who represented Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Léger among others, will feature paintings that passed through his hands. Due to open in Liège, Belgium, in September, it will then travel to the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
The French journalist Anne Sinclair, who is Rosenberg’s granddaughter, has endorsed the exhibition at the revamped Musée de la Boverie (22 September-29 January). Titled 21 rue La Boétie, the show is based on Sinclair’s book of the same name, which tells of Rosenberg’s Paris gallery, friendships with leading artists, persecution by the Nazis and his fight after the Second World War to reclaim looted works.
The Jewish art dealer fled to New York during the war and the Nazis confiscated his gallery, turning it into a centre for anti-Semitic propaganda. In May 2015, the German government returned a painting by Henri Matisse from the hoard of Cornelius Gurlitt to Rosenberg’s heirs.
“I’m not sure how many works Ms Sinclair will loan personally, but many of the works will be on loan from international museums,” says a spokeswoman for La Boverie, who declined to name the participating institutions. Sinclair, the editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post in France, declined to comment.
The show is due to travel to the Centre Pompidou next February. “The exhibition in Liège will be organised with the support of the Centre Pompidou,” says a spokesman for the Beaubourg gallery, who adds that the Paris museum will loan works to the Liège show.
The Musée de la Boverie complex, which was built in 1905 for a world expo, is due to open on 5 May after a three-year refurbishment led by the French architect Rudy Ricciotti. The building houses works dating from antiquity to today, which were previously in the collections of two of the city’s main museums, the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Musee d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain (Mamac). The renovation has cost €23.5m; funders include the City of Liège.
