Abel Bonnard

Abel Bonnard was born in Poitiers, Vienne and died in Madrid, Spain. During the Vichy regime, he succeeded Joseph Carcopino as Minister for National Education and served from April 1942 until 1944. Bonnard was a poet and writer. In May 1932, he was inducted into the Académie française. After the creation of the Vichy government, he openly argued for close Franco-German ties, praising German achievements on the Eastern front and endorsing anti-Semitic views. During his tenure as Minister of National Education, Bonnard pressed for closer collaboration with Germany. Toward the end of the occupation, in March 1944, Bonnard replaced Louis Hautecoeur as fine arts director. Pierre Laval designated Abel Bonnard to oversee on behalf of the Vichy government the liquidation of the confiscated Schloss Collection. On 7 August 1943, Bonnard summoned Lefranc to Vichy to discuss with Laval the Schloss Collection. Two days later, he instructed Lefranc to remove the collection from Limoges. On 10 August 1943, Bonnard ordered the chauffeur Nériec, who had transported the collection from Paris to Chambon, to take the Schloss Collection from Limoges to the Aryanized Louis Dreyfus bank building in Paris, parts of which served as a CGQJ (Commissariat général aux questions juives) depot. On 22 August 1943, Bonnard and German consul Rudolf Schleier viewed the 49 paintings selected by Louvre curators during a survey of the collection while it sat in Limoges. On 27 August 1943, Bonnard approved the sale of “252” paintings, a numbering error that was subsequently corrected to 262 paintings, to the German embassy for the Linz museum. At the end of World War II, Bonnard was expelled from the Académie Française for his role as a Vichy minister. The French High Court of Justice sentenced him to death in absentia on 4 July 1945. Literature: Mièvre, J. “L’évolution politique d’Abel Bonnard (jusqu’au printemps 1942).” Revue d’histoire de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. [about:blank 27e Année, No. 108, Sur la collaboration en France (Octobre 1977)], pp. 1-26.   Karlsgodt, Elizabeth. [about:blank Defending National Treasures: French Art and Heritage Under Vichy]. Stanford University Press 2011.   “Abel Bonnard, Vichy Minister Of Education, 84, Dies in Spain.” New York Times, 2 June 1968. Online at:_ _[about:blank https://www.nytimes.com/1968/06/02/archives/abel-bonnard-vichy-minister-of-education-84-dies-in-spain.html].