Lot Essay
Adolphe Schloss was a great amateur of Dutch and Flemish Old Masters. After his death in 1910, the collection passed to his wife Lucie and later to his children who transferred it in its totality to the castle of Chambon near Tulle in 1939. On 10 April 1943 the Germans, who had been looking for the collection since they had invaded France, found it and brought it back to Paris with the intention of sending the paintings to Hitler's Museum in Germany. The Louvre only succeded in pre-empting 49 of the 333 paintings which would be the first ones to be restituted to the family after the war. Some other paintings would also be given back after the war. Two sales were organised by the descendants of Adolphe Schloss in 1949 and 1951.