Souvenirs from Occupied France: The Provenance of Two Bronze Figures

Mirjam Neusius

How did a German school teacher, who was deployed as a translator in the south of France during the war years 1941–1942, come into possession of works of art that later became family heirlooms?  Did he acquire them legally? Or are they instead to be considered as part of the loot that accompanied National Socialist rule in the occupied territories throughout Europe?
The artworks in question are two bronze figures, with dimensions of approx. 30 cm each.  The C'est mi-boy from 1890 by Felix Pardo de Tavera (1859–1932) is certainly one of the better-known works by the Filipino artist, who from 1877 lived in Paris, where he worked as a sculptor while practicing also as a doctor. The little Sportsman (ca. 1905) by Josep Cardona i Furró (1878–1922) also represents a boy, holding his hands in his pockets (like the sculpture by Tavera) in a waiting, observing posture. Cardona i Furró, who came from Barcelona, lived and worked in Paris from 1898 to 1909, where he also exhibited in the official Paris Salons.
So how did these artworks find their way into the private possession of a German school teacher? Mathias Reis (1894–1964) had a doctorate in literature and was teaching at a grammar school in Cologne when the war broke out. After being drafted and then working for a short period in the administration of a prisoner-of-war camp in Bocholt, he was – due to his language skills – seconded to the French military government in 1941 and deployed there as a translator, initially with the rank of lieutenant and later first lieutenant. During the Second World War, the German Wehrmacht in occupied France carried out extensive looting operations. This robbery ranged from large-scale looting organized by the National Socialist occupation authorities to souvenir and occasional purchases by ordinary soldiers who brought their treasures home en masse on furlough. By combining research into both the provenance of the bronze figures and into the historical biography of the drafted school teacher, the planned study aims to shed light on the ownership status of the artworks in question, not least in order to potentially return them to their rightful heirs.