Long Island, New York, May 14, 2000

http://www.newsday.com/ap/international/ap960.htm

Writer Backed in French Libel Case

By The Associated Press

PARIS (AP) -- A Paris appeals court has ruled in favor of an American writer who suggested that a well-known French-Jewish art dealer may have collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, a national newspaper reported this weekend.

Three members of the prominent New York-based Wildenstein family of art dealers had accused art historian Hector Feliciano of libel fo remarks about the late Georges Wildenstein in the book "The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art."

Upholding a 1999 ruling, the appeals court on Friday called Feliciano's treatment of his subject matter "nuanced." It dismissed the Wildensteins' allegations that he acted with negligence, the Liberation daily said in its weekend edition.

Feliciano's book suggests that Georges Wildenstein, who ran the family business from 1910 until his death in 1963, maintained commercial ties with the Nazis during the Occupation. Wildenstein fled France in 1941 and settled in New York. His son Daniel, grandsons Alec and Guy and their New York gallery had sought $850,000 in damages, claiming the book tarnished the family name and scared away major clients.

The book and the court case have focused a spotlight on the complex wartime relations between Paris art dealers and the Nazis -- dealings that have come under increased scrutiny in recent years.

The book mentions Wildenstein only in passing. It focuses primarily on the Nazis' organized pillaging of thousands of paintings belonging to wealthy French Jews. It was published in France in 1995 and in the United States in 1997.

Related story, June 1999: U.S. WRITER WINS WW.II ART SUIT