An exhibition about the influential art dealer Paul Rosenberg (1881-1959), which is currently on show in Liège in Belgium, will not travel to the Centre Pompidou in Paris next year as planned but will open at the Musée Maillol instead in the capital (March-July 2017). The current exhibition at La Boverie (until 29 January 2017), entitled 21 rue la Boétie, features paintings that passed through Rosenberg’s hands, with 63 works on show by artists such as Matisse, Braque and Picasso.
We reported earlier this year that the exhibition was due to open in February at the Centre Pompidou. But the Beaubourg gallery is planning its own show on Rosenberg, and proposing “a different approach”, a gallery spokesman says.
“We are organising an exhibition comprising works drawn from our own collection that were donated by Paul Rosenberg, and linked to spoliation during the Second World War,” he says. The show is scheduled to run from February to June 2018.
The French journalist Anne Sinclair, who is Rosenberg’s granddaughter, has endorsed the exhibition in Liège, which is based on her book of the same name; the publication tells of Rosenberg’s Paris gallery, friendships with leading artists, persecution by the Nazis and his fight after the Second World War to reclaim looted works.
According to the New York Times, the exhibition will also travel to Jerusalem and New York. A spokesman for the Belgian company Tempora, which is organising 21 rue la Boétie, declined to give further details about the itinerary change, adding that details regarding further venues still need to be finalised.
UPDATE (30 October): A spokesman for Tempora says: "The exhibition 21 rue La Boétie, was created by Tempora with the scientific partnership [assistance] of the Centre Pompidou. Following its collaboration with Tempora, the Centre Pompidou will present an exhibition about the dealer Paul Rosenberg. This project will be centred on the works donated by Rosenberg to the Centre Pompidou."