The Wildenstein family surely made a blunder in suing American writer Hector Feliciano who had claimed that Georges Wildenstein had had direct relations with the German authorities during the occupation of France between 1940 and 1944. A Paris court of Appeal ruled on May 12th 2000 that Hector Feliciano had not slandered the Wildenstein family in suggesting such fact.
The Wildenstein family had been asking for damages amounting to six million FF ($ 850,000) in claiming that he had published slanderous remarks regarding Georges Wildenstein who died in 1963.
Hector Feliciano, who works in New York with the World Jewish Congress, had published a few lines concerning the attitude of that dealer during the 1940s in his book «Le Musée Disparu» (The Lost Museum) published by the Austral Publishing House in 1995.
The Court of Appeal indicated it was not in its power to give an opinion regarding such controversy but said there was no reason why Georges Wildenstein should not be presented as a character who had an ambivalent attitude, meaning that despite the fact he had suffered spoliations from the Germans, he continued to carry out his business on the Paris art market via an agent during the occupation of France.
The court said that the contacts reportedly established between Georges Wildenstein and the Germans could not be qualified as false since he had been in touch business wise before the war with Karl Haberstock, known to have been one of Hitler's advisers regarding art matters.
After the German army had invaded France, Haberstock protected Roger Decquoy, the representative of Georges Wildenstein who was in his charge of his gallery while the latter was living as a refugee in New York. Such facts tend to make believe that the famous art dealer, whose collection was in part plundered by the Germans, continued his business relations with the Nazis.
The Wildenstein family, quite touchy about any sensitive articles concerning the alleged activities of their parent during the war, was surely flabbergasted by this ruling now published under the undisputed seal of justice.
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