CHESNIER-DUCHESNE Gabrielle (EN)

Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne was a broker in objets d’art for an antiques stock owned by her husband, Marcel Chesnier-Duchesne. During the Occupation, she was implicated in the affair of the sale by Henri Aumaitre of tapestries to Göring.

Tapestries for Göring

Gabrielle Dubois was born 26 January 1897 in Bersillies-l’Abbaye in Belgium. She obtained French nationality through her first marriage. On 15 March 1930 she married her second husband, Marcel Chesnier-Duchesne, who gave her the charge of an antiques stock at 83, rue de la Convention. The business was run essentially by Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne, assisted by her daughter Solange Sturbois, from her first marriage. As of 1932, business was severely affected by the crisis.¹

The shop remained closed from July 1939 until the end of 1940, then functioned on average only half of each year during the Occupation.² Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne declared having been visited, early 1941, by Élisabeth Collolian, a client looking for gothic tapestries for a third person.³ Shortly after, Henri Aumaitre, owner of 17^th c. tapestries relating scenes from the life of Charles Quint, informed Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne that he wanted to sell those tapestries.⁴ After contacts by telephone with the potential buyer proposed by Mme Collolian, she told Aumaitre to exhibit them. He found a place to do so – the galerie Charpentier, closed at the time, and whose owner, Maurice Deltour, received no compensation. Henri Aumaitre set the minimum sale price at 3,500,000 F and left Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne to conduct the sale.

The first visit to the gallery took place in the morning in the presence of Mme Collolian and her daughter-in-law, as well as a certain M. Schmidt, preparing the arrival of the actual buyer, who turned out to be Hermann Göring himself, accompanied by Josef Angerer and Walter Andreas Hofer.⁵ Angerer negotiated the sale. He made out a receipt for 4 million francs, keeping for himself a commission of 500,000 francs and lowering the sale price to 3,500,000 francs. Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne thus obtained no profit from the sale, but accepted the offer on condition that Göring intervene to free her three nephews.⁶

Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne paid 3,300,000 F to Henri Aumaitre, who in the end gave her a commission of 200,000 F.⁷ She noted in her depositions that “those 200,000 Frcs attributed to me as profit in the tapestries affair I did not collect. Despite everything, I accepted to take responsibility for them from the start of the investigation.”⁸ In fact, she gave Élisabeth Collolian, who had intervened as an intermediary, a commission of 80,000 F. The verifier of the Comité de confiscation des profits illicites noted however, that during the investigation of the affair “the person in question furthermore declared that she in fact hadn’t made a cent in the affair, but refused to give reasons for that, which leads one to believe that the affair continues to possess an “undergrowth” we don’t know about.⁹

Moreover, after that sale, Mme Chesnier-Duchesne was summoned to the Luftwaffe, as the result of a complaint lodged by a certain Mlle Lancelet, who claimed to be the owner of the tapestries with Aumaitre and demanded part of the benefits of the sale. But she was rapidly cleared, since the affair mainly revolved around Aumaitre.¹⁰

Shortly after, in March or April 1941, Mme Chesnier-Duchesne had a visit from Angerer: Göring had learned of the profit realized by the seller of the tapestries (sold for four million francs) and demanded an inquiry. It is not certain that Göring knew how much of a commission Angerer had taken on the price indicated. Angerer also came to requisition two paintings¹¹ in Mme Chesnier-Duchesne’s shop. Displeased with the number of intermediaries taking part in the tapestries affair, he paid 170,000 F for the two paintings a few months later. The profit reputed as fraudulent for the two paintings by the Comité de confiscation des profits illicites was 25,000 F, but it was charged to M. Chesnier-Duchesne, since the business was in his name.¹²

Other sales

Another affair concerning Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne was also investigated after the Occupation: during one of his visits, Josef Angerer asked to be put in contact with Countess Geneviève de Boishue, who owned a Gobelins tapestry he was looking for (La Chasse d’Isidore).¹ But during the interview, the countess asked for 1,400,000 F, which Angerer refused, and the affair wasn’t followed up.² Mme de Boishue stated that she had refused owing to the nationality of the buyer and had informed Mme Chesnier-Duchesne that she would only sell to a French person.

Then Dr Hans Wendland, a client of Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne since before the war, put in a bid for the tapestry on behalf of his own account with her. Finally, it was M. Boitel who bought the tapestry for Wendland, Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne having withdrawn from the affair after the countess raised the price several times.³ The latter stated that she had been forced to deliver the tapestry after M. Boitel paid 2,500,000 F to her account, after which she brought the case to court.

An information bulletin of the Paris Customs Directory mentions a sale of objects exported to Germany for a sum of 190,000 F. This sale is mentioned in the Chesnier-Duchesne accounts, but M et Mme Chesnier-Duchesne claim to have sold those objects to a Russian in March 1944. The Chenue enterprise was in charge of the delivery, and that was how they learned that the objects were in fact intended for a German, M. Glasmer (perhaps Heinrich Glasmeier).⁴ But that sale was not considered illicit.

On 5 June 1947 the Comité de confiscation des profits illicites sanctioned Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne with a confiscation order of 200,000 F and a fine of the same amount. The fine was doubled by a decision of the Conseil supérieur de confiscation des profits illicites on 7 July 1950. Her husband, Marcel Chesnier-Duchesne was declared jointly responsible regarding the both the confiscation and the fine.⁵ Gabrielle Chesnier-Duchesne was also the subject of information before the court of justice, closed on 29 May 1946,⁶ as well as before the Commission interprofessionnelle d’épuration, which ruled on a reprimand with public notice.⁷