The weekend of 20th March saw members and friends besieging – or rather hiking round – the Cité of Carcassonne on a trail enhanced by the historical knowledge of our guide, Cambridge alumnus Peter Elliot. The restaurant Adélaïde lifted our hunger very satisfactorily, such that the Dame Carcas might have sounded the bells.
The previous day, after a rowdy bar group in our Limoux lunch venue had been silenced, Peter finished elaborating the fascinating history of the stolen art treasures of the Galeries Lafayette family and other entrepreneurial Jewish families in France. The paintings stolen included fine impressionist, expressionist and fauvist works, regarded by the Nazis (with the possible exception of Göring) as degenerate but nonetheless registered in typical bureaucratic detail. Their recovery is still however not totally complete. Peter’s book ‘Looted’ covers the history of these thefts in detail -see link below.
A visit to the cave of Family Antech in Limoux enabled us to sample and purchase the unique and bubbly wines of the area.
All in all, another enlightening and convivial weekend – for which we thank Greg for his fine organisation and Peter for his lucid and entertaining presentations.
Looted!: The Nazi Art Plunder of Jewish Families in FranceAmazon.frhttps://www.amazon.fr › Looted-P…
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