Alphonse Bellier

Alphonse Bellier (21 July 1886 – 1 November 1980) was a French auctioneer specializing in the sale of art collections.

Biography

The son of a baker from Saint-Nazaire, Alphonse Louis Marie Bellier came to Paris in 1918 and began his career as a notary, before becoming an auctioneer on 27 March 1920. In Paris, he held office No. 66 of the Chambre des commissaires-priseurs judiciaires de la Seine until 7 November 1958. His main place of work was the Hôtel Drouot, where he conducted a large number of art sales. He surrounded himself with experts such as Jos Hessel, André Schoeller (1879-1955), Jacques Mathey and Robert Lebel, for sales of paintings and drawings. He is in contact with private collectors and museum institutions.

Auctioneer of looted art during the German occupation

During the Occupation, Bellier organized over 250 sales for the Hôtel Drouot auction house between 1941 and 1944. His sales were mainly of objets d'art, but also of everyday furniture and jewelry. Some of them involved collections plundered from Jews, which were widely advertised in the press. Historians and looted art scholars are currently conducting research into the extent of Bellier's involvement in laundering art looted from Jewish or extracted from them in forced sales under the Nazi occupation.

Postwar

Bellier continued to work as an auctioneer after the Libération. He was the defendant in two trials, one involving Jean Bloch for a sale that took place on 11 December 1941, and another initiated by the Fabius family concerning the forced sale in 1942 of the stock for the art gallery of Élie Fabius.

He died in Paris on 1 November 1980.

See also

Occupied France