AUMAITRE Henri (EN)

During the Occupation, Henri Aumaitre was involved notably in the sale to Hermann Göring of 17^th c. tapestries he had acquired from a certain Mlle Lancelet, and that were delivered to the galerie Charpentier. In this affair, he is linked with Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne, who operated the transaction with Göring, and Josef Angerer, who made the payment.

Tapestries for Göring

Henri Aumaitre was born 21 November 1892 in Souvigny, in the Allier Department. Beginning in 1935, he worked as a dealer in tapestries, ceasing his activity when war was declared. From 15 January to 30 May 1940, he was employed as a salesperson in the enterprise Vve Behal, Gravier & Julien, Beurre – fromages en gros et demi-gros¹ (Butter – wholesale and semi-wholesale cheeses). As of the beginning of the Occupation and until July 1943, he spent a good deal of time at his parents’ farm in Souvigny.² As part of his father’s agricultural enterprise, he was able to have a border farmer’s card, useful to him as a member of the Marco-Polo resistance network.³ As such, he was in relation with an agent of the Resistance and transported from Moulins to Paris dossiers, papers and letters containing various types of information.⁴ He resumed his tapestry business in 1942, but closed it, due to pressure of the occupant, following complaints filed against him by Mlle Lancelet.⁵

Aumaitre was brought before the Commission nationale interprofessionnelle d’épuration and to the court of justice for an affair linking him to Gabrielle and Marcel Chesnier-Duchesne, also to Élisabeth Collolian. A letter addressed to the minister of Finance, written by Mlle Lancelet, indignant at having been swindled during a sale of seven tapestries, suggested that the Comité look into the affair.⁶ He was summoned for “commercial operations with the enemy,” and was sanctioned with a 1,905,000 F confiscation penalty and a one million franc fine.⁷ As for the Commission nationale interprofessionnelle d’épuration, it decided on a “reprimand with a sign on the door of his enterprise for a month.”⁸ Finally, in the court of justice the case was closed definitively on 29 May 1946.⁹

The affair behind these indictments was the sale to Göring of important tapestries for four million francs. In 1934, Henri Aumaitre learned that Léon Civet, a Parisian collector, wanted to sell seven 17^th c. tapestries representing scenes from the life of Charles Quint.¹⁰ The operation was refused by Aumaitre, who considered the price of 500,000 F requested by the owner of the tapestries too high. He acquired them for 425,000 F at the beginning of the Occupation,¹¹ conceding to a Demoiselle Lancelet 110,000 F for having facilitated the operation. The acquisition, however, was cause for litigation: Mlle Lancelet claimed that the tapestries were sold to a consortium of dealers, headed by Aumaitre and of which she was part.¹²

Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne, Josef Angerer and the galerie Charpentier

Aumaitre refused to be considered as having bought the tapestries with a primary aim of reselling them to the Germans. Owing to his participation in a Resistance network, “the simple concern for his personal security advised him to avoid all contact with Germans.”¹ Furthermore, he stated that his acquisition of the tapestries was motivated by the interest in them, relayed to him by Paul Botte, of a Spanish clergyman, Father Moreno. The idea was to offer them by subscription on the occasion of General Franco’s birthday.² But discussions hadn’t led anywhere, and Aumaitre informed various antique dealers that he was in possession of the tapestries, after which Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne contacted him.³

Although the Commission nationale interprofessionnelle d’épuration maintained that “at the time only the Germans could acquire goods of that kind and Aumaitre’s rush to buy at a price well under the value of the object had no other aim than to realize a very advantageous speculation, which it turned out to be,”⁴ to which Aumaitre answered that having closed his business in 1939, he had not closely followed the Parisian antiques market during that period. His defense then rested on his ignorance of who the buyers were. In a deposition of 13 March 1946, Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne confirmed this: “I agree with Aumaitre, at the earliest, I must have mentioned this client to him for the first time and said he was a German when I paid him, and perhaps later.”⁵

Henri Aumaitre then appealed to the galerie Charpentier, where the tapestries had been delivered in February 1941 and entrusted to Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne to sell for a minimum of 3,500,000 F.⁶ It was for that reason that Aumaitre denied having had dealings with the occupant: “Mme Chesnier-Duchesne never mentioned the name of her client, since obviously, I could have dealt with him myself and left her out of the deal.”⁷ Mme Chesnier-Duchesne received various German personalities in the gallery, brought to her by Josef Angerer, Göring’s personal buyer, then Göring himself.⁸ She sold him the entire lot of tapestries for the sum of 3,500,000 F paid in cash by Angerer. Aumaitre was paid immediately, less a 200,000 F commission to Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne.⁹

The dispute with Mademoiselle Lancelet

Following this sale, in September 1941 Aumaitre was summoned to the chief of staff of the Luftwaffe, due to a complaint lodged with them by Mlle Lancelet, wishing to obtain restitution of the tapestries so as to sell them herself. As a result of this, Monsieur Römer discovered the real selling price of the tapestries, and Aumaitre was obliged to reimburse the Germans 800,000 F.¹ At that point, Henri Aumaître’s lawyer, Maître Floriot, proposed the restitution of the 3,500,000 and the return of the tapestries, which was refused.²

Furthermore, there was also mention of a payment of 60,000 F to a German officer, M. Katzen, to have the dossier definitively closed.³ The payment of that sum followed on various summonses and threats on the part of the German authorities, and always due to the intervention of Mlle Lancelet, “claiming to be owner of the tapestries with Aumaitre and demanding from the latter her share of the profits.”⁴

According to Aumaitre, this dispute was at the origin of a search of his flat by the Gestapo on 14 March 1943⁵ and the seizure of antique tapestries bought for 950,000 F, profits from the sale to Hermann Göring.⁶ However, the Comité de confiscation des profits illicites refused to take this loss into account, judging that “there were only personal declarations of the size and exact amount of the possible robbery he may have been the object of,”⁷ since the Comité has noted differences of opinion concerning various estimates of the value and nature of the goods requisitioned.”