A French court dismissed on June 23rd 1999 a legal case regarding an American author sued by the Wildenstein family after he had written that Paris dealer Georges Wildenstein had actively collaborated in art dealings with the Nazis during the Second World War. Hector Feliciano published a book a few years ago on the activities of certain French dealers during the war and claimed that Georges Wildenstein, who had sought refuge in New York to flee antisemitic persecutions in France, had continued to run his gallery in Pariswith the help of his "Aryan" director named Dequoy.
Mr Felicano was being sued by the Wildenstein family for not having been loyal nor objective but the Court decreed that he had on the contrary brought proof that Georges Wildenstein had had business relations with Karl Haberstock, the German Nazi official who had been the theoritician of "Degenerate Art" in Gemany and in charge of Nazi purchases of works of art in occupied France.
The legal counsels of the Wildenstein family announced that they would launch an immediate appeal against the Paris court decision. Adrian Darmon
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