Correspondence between Abel Bonnard and Pierre Cathala regarding the confiscated Schloss collection and its partial acquisition through pre-emption by the Louvre

Correspondence from Secrétaire d’État et de l’Éducation Nationale (Abel Bonnard) to the Secrétaire d’État é l’Économie Nationale et aux Finances (Direction du Budget) (Pierre Cathala)   Abel Bonnard submitted to Pierre Cathala the draft of an interdepartmental decree which would expand the types of goods covered by the law of July 22, 1941, as well as the provisions of article 10 of the decree of November 23, 1940. Article 10 made it possible for the Direction des Beaux-Arts to ensure the State’s ability to take possession of works of art of sufficient importance as to justify their preservation for French patrimony. The Schloss Collection offered a unique opportunity to make a decision in that regard. Bonnard argued that these special actions could not happen without the assistance of the Ministry of Finance. Bonnard mentioned in passing that “the owner of the Schloss Collection had shared with the Louvre her desire to donate an unspecified number of works from her collection.” But her unexpected death put an end to that project. Of the “350 paintings,” there are 49 works which need to be acquired so as to transform the Louvre’s Dutch rooms to be the best in the world behind museums in Amsterdam and The Hague.