Focus on this artwork and explore the Provenance.
Jean-Baptiste Faure bought In the Conservatory from Manet, along with three other paintings, for the "paltry sum" of 11,000 francs. In 1896 the German Nationalgalerie in Berlin purchased it, becoming the first museum anywhere to have purchased a Manet.In 1945 by the end of the Second World War In the Conservatory was among the objects evacuated from the German National Gallery and the Berlin State Museums and put for safekeeping in a mine in Merkers. After the war the picture was discovered and secured by the Monuments Men. Its salvage was documented in several photographs which show soldiers from the U.S. Army posing with Manet’s painting in the mine in Merkers. These photographs have gained iconographic status over the years and are often falsely used as an illustration of Nazi looted art in prestigious publications like the Deutsche Welle, The Washington Post, The New York Times and even in academic papers.
Monuments Men U.S. Army German National Gallery Berlin Merkers Jean-Baptiste Faure Berlin State Museums Nationalgalerie