Julie Goujon-Reinach

Portrait of Julie Goujon-Reinach by Antonia de La Gandara

Julie Goujon, née Reinach (1885-1971) was an art collector from the famous French Jewish Reinach family persecuted by the Nazis due to her Jewish heritage

Life

Julie Reinach was born in 1885 into the illustrious French Jewish Reinach family. Her father was Joseph Reinach (1856-1921) a noted lawyer and politician who championed Dreyfus in the Dreyfus Affair. Her uncles were the archeologist Salomon Reinach (1858-1932) and the archeologist and mathematician Theodore Reinach (1860-1928)

She married Pierre Goujon and often was known as Julie Reinach-Goujon or Julie Goujon-Reinach or Madame Pierre Goujon or Lily Goujon-Reinach.

Julie Goujon-Reinach owned Monet's Le Jardin des Tuileries (W 402)
Le Jardin des Tuileries, Claude Monet, Wildenstein Nr. 402

Art Collection

Reinach's father, Joseph, collected art, and after he died, the collection was inherited by his daughter, Julie Reinach Goujon, and grandson Jean-Pierre. Reinach continued to enhance the collection at her home in Saint Germain-en-Laye. Her collection contained artworks by Van Gogh, Corot, Gauguin, Manet, Degas, Rodin, Delacroix, Monet, Rembrandt and Felix Vallotton. Her husband Pierre also collected art.

Nazi persecution and seizures

When Nazi Germany invaded France in 1940, the Reinach family was persecuted due to their Jewish heritage. Reinach's art collection was plundered by the Nazi looted organization known as the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg ERR. In some sources, the Nazi looted art is listed under her father's, name.

Reinach's cousin Julien Reinach (1892-1962) survived deportation to Drancy and Bergen-Belsen but Léon Reinach (1893-1944) and his wife Béatrice de Camondo (Béatrice Reinach) were murdered at Auschwitz along with their children Fanny (1920-1943) and Bertrand (1923-1943).

Postwar claims for restitution

Reinach's great-great nephew Alexandre Bronstein searched for the artworks stolen from her collection by Nazis in 1941 On September 28, 2011, after a long investigation he wrote to the culture minister Frederic Mitterrand demanding the restitution of a painting by Henri Gervex

Lawsuits against Wildenstein

In 2011, Reinach family member Alexander Bronstein filed a lawsuit against the Wildenstein art dealing family after French antifraud investigator discovered a painting belonging to them among a stash of artworks in Wildenstein vault. According to Artinfo, Bronstein "filed a criminal lawsuit inquiry claiming that Daniel Wildenstein, Guy's father, kept inaccurate inventories of the estate so that it would remain unclear which work was looted by Nazis, and which was looted by the Wildensteins."

Legacy

Goujon-Reinach's art collection has undergone several phases of dispersal. Some artwork looted by the Nazis during her lifetime have not been recovered and their whereabouts are still unknown. Some artworks from her collection were rediscovered after her death in the vaults of the Wildenstein Institute in 2011 A major auction of artworks from her collection took place on November 20, 2020 . Individual works that passed through her collection continue to enrich museums and private collections. A Monet (Le Jardin des Tuileries) that Goujon-Reinach once owned will be auctioned at Sotheby's Blaquier-Arrietta sale in November 2026 with an estimated price of "$15 million to $20 million".

See also

The Reinach Family

Béatrice de Camondo

The Holocaust in France

Hector Feliciano

Wildenstein Institute

References

  1. ↑ "Orsay accusé de détenir illégalement un tableau de Gervex". Le Journal Des Arts (in French). Retrieved 2026-11-09. Dans un article publié le 19 novembre 2011, le magazine L'Express a révélé qu'Alexandre Bronstein, descendant de Joseph Reinach, homme politique de la IIIe République, soupçonnait les Musées de France de ne pas être le véritable propriétaire d'un tableau d'Henri Gervex conservé au Musée d'Orsay. A la direction de « La République française » est considéré comme ayant été officiellement légué aux musées français par son premier propriétaire, Joseph Reinach. Pourtant, selon Alexandre Bronstein, aucun document ne permettrait de prouver la réalité de ce don.
  2. ↑ "Issuu Reader". issuu.com. Retrieved 2026-11-09.
  3. ↑ "Claude Monet | Le Jardin des Tuileries | Legendary: The". Sotheby's. Retrieved 2026-11-09. Ernest May, Paris (acquired directly from the artist on 14 April 1878). Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 4 June 1890, lot 48 (consigned by the above). Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired at the above sale). Edson Keith, Chicago (acquired from the above on 9 June 1890). Joseph Stránský, New York . Jos Hessel, Paris. Julie Goujon (née Reinach), Paris (acquired circa 1937). Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York (acquired from the above by 1971). Acquired from the above in 1979 by the present owner
  4. ↑ "Tobias Healing His Father's Blindness | Cleveland Museum of Art". www.clevelandart.org. Retrieved 2026-11-09.
  5. ↑ "FÉLIX VALLOTTON (1865-1925) , Torse de femme couchée, 1913 | Christie's". www.christies.com. Retrieved 2026-11-09. Galerie Druet, Paris (Nr. 7600), direkt beim Künstler 1913 erworben. Pierre und Lily Goujon-Reinach, Paris, 1914 (1930 verkauft oder getauscht). Galerie Arts plastiques modernes, Paris. Lucien Archinard, Genf. Galerie Klopfer, Zürich, 1987. Galerie Vallotton, Lausanne (Nr. 12'971), 1987. Privatbesitz, Schweiz
  6. ↑ "Ancienne collection de Julie Reinach-goujon: une histoire de dessins" (PDF). touati-duffaud.com.
  7. ↑ "Property from a Distinguished Private Collection, North America. Albert Marquet. Le Modèle lisant ou Nu à la cheminée". www.sothebys.com. Retrieved 2026-11-09.
  8. ↑ "(#401) MAURICE DENIS | Printemps dans la forêt, étude ou Paysage Blanc". Sothebys.com (in Traditional Chinese). Retrieved 2026-11-09. Galerie Druet, Paris (acquired directly from the artist in 1908). Pierre Goujon (acquired from the above in 1908). Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 29, 1971, lot 100
  9. ↑ "Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR): Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume". www.errproject.org. Archived from the original on 2022-09-15. Retrieved 2026-11-09.
  10. ↑ "How France Betrayed the Very Jews Who Placed Their Faith and Fortunes in its Ideals". Tablet Magazine. 2021-10-07. Retrieved 2026-11-09.
  11. ↑ Carvajal, Doreen; Vogel, Carol (2011-04-19). "Venerable Art Dealer Is Enmeshed in Lawsuits". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-11-09. Alexandre Bronstein, great-great-nephew of Julie Reinach, a wealthy art collector, has searched for years for works plundered from her collection in 1941 by the Nazis who torched the family home in St.-Germain-en-Laye.
  12. ↑ Bellet, Harry (2011-02-02). "La police a saisi des œuvres "disparues ou volées" à l'Institut Wildenstein". Le Monde (in French). ISSN 1950-6244. Retrieved 2026-11-09.
  13. ↑ "A qui appartient la République française ?". France Culture (in French). 2012-02-15. Retrieved 2026-11-09. Pour forcer la décision en sa faveur, Alexandre Bronstein a écrit, le 28 septembre 2011, au ministre de la Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand. Il lui réclame la restitution du tableau.
  14. ↑ "Filippetti: les embarras de "La République"". L'Express (in French). 2013-01-21. Retrieved 2026-11-09.
  15. ↑ Carvajal, Doreen; Vogel, Carol (2011-04-19). "Venerable Art Dealer Is Enmeshed in Lawsuits". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-11-09. The police raid on the Wildenstein Institute uncovered a missing bronze by the Italian sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti and two Degas drawings that Mr. Bronstein said belonged to his family, and he promptly filed a criminal lawsuit inquiry. He said he suspected there were more of his family's missing artworks involved, and said the motivation for his lawsuit was basic: "People are lying, and we want to find the truth."
  16. ↑ "Artinfo.com". www.artinfo.com. Archived from the original on 2023-03-15. Retrieved 2026-11-09.
  17. ↑ "The Evilest Art Dealers in the World?: A Digest of the Wildenstein Allegations". www.lootedart.com. Retrieved 2026-11-09. Guy Wildenstein is embroiled in at least half a dozen lawsuits, some related to the recent raid and others instigated by families who believe that artworks entrusted to Guy, his father, and his grandfather were stolen over the years. Three of the works found in the latest raid — a bronze sculpture by Italian artist Rembrandt Bugatti and two Degas drawings — seem to be from the collection of Julie Reinach, whose art was looted by Nazis in 1941. Reinach's great-great nephew, Alexandre Bronstein, has filed a criminal lawsuit inquiry claiming that Daniel Wildenstein, Guy's father, kept inaccurate inventories of the estate so that it would remain unclear which work was looted by Nazis, and which was looted by the Wildensteins.
  18. ↑ Carvajal, Doreen (2012-03-19). "Prominent French Families Battle Over a Missing Monet". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-11-09.
  19. ↑ "Découverte troublante à l'institut Wildenstein". Le Journal Des Arts (in French). Retrieved 2026-11-11.
  20. ↑ "EXCLUSIF - Trente oeuvres "disparues ou volées" ont été saisies à l'institut Wildenstein". Le Point.fr (in French). Retrieved 2026-11-11.
  21. ↑ "Annonce | [VENTE MAINTENUE EN LIGNE] TOUATI DUFFAUD - Ancienne collection de Julie Reinach-Goujon". drouot.com (in French). Retrieved 2026-11-11. e vendredi 20 novembre, l'ancienne collection de Julie Reinach-Goujon sera dispersée sous le marteau de la maison Touati Duffaud, à Drouot. La collection comprend des œuvres d'Edgar DEGAS (1834-1917), Eugène DELACROIX (1798- 1863), Auguste RODIN (1840-1917) ou encore Pierre PUVIS de CHAVANNES (1824-1898), tant d'artistes qui font date dans l'Histoire de l'art du XIXe siècle. Ainsi, une Danseuse au pastel d'Edgar Degas, estimée entre 100 000 et 150 000 euros côtoiera, parmi d'autres, un Tigre au pastel d'Eugène Delacroix de 1848, estimé entre 80 000 et 120 000 euros. Entamée à la fin du XIXe siècle lorsque les grandes familles de banquiers se lancent dans l'acquisition de collections d'art et tissent des liens durables avec les grands marchands de l'époque (Durand-Ruel, Wildenstein, Bernheim, etc.), la Collection Reinach-Goujon devient l'une des plus prestigieuses de Paris au lendemain de la Première Guerre mondiale.
  22. ↑ "Art News: The $450 million Blaquier-Arrieta collection leads the November auctions in New York". whitebankfineart.co.uk. 2026-11-01. Retrieved 2026-11-11.