After several years of cataloging, nearly 2500 sales files, along with the accounting and expertise archives of Alphonse Bellier, are now available to the scientific community. These documents, which can be consulted every afternoon at the INHA in the Doucet space of the Labrouste room, allow for a detailed reconstruction of the sales organized by this auctioneer who dominated the art market for nearly four decades.
The archives provide valuable information on the provenance of works, the list of lots, sellers, correspondence, and the identity of buyers. Invoices related to advertising, catalog printing, transport, and storage of works at the Hôtel Drouot, as well as cash books and accounting registers, offer a precise insight into the study's economic model.
Almost all sales conducted by Alphonse Bellier have been preserved, complementing the minutes deposited with the Archives de la Seine. Over 500 digitized catalogs, available on Cariatide, the digital library of the INHA, facilitate artwork research thanks to OCR.
These archives, donated to the INHA in 2018 along with the collection of his successor Raoul Oury and that of Guy Loudmer, are particularly valuable for the study of the art market during the Occupation, especially for research on works looted during World War II. Bellier's firm dispersed many looted items, known as 'Jewish sales,' at the request of provisional administrators or among assets abandoned by their Jewish owners.
This cataloging is part of the INHA's long-standing effort to support research in this field, including the digitization of over 3000 sales catalogs from the Occupation period, the publication of the Directory of Art Market Actors during the Occupation, the recent acquisition of journalist Philippe Sprang's archives, and the identification of looted books leading to the restitution of a volume to the descendants of Marc Bloch in March 2026.
The INHA is expanding its investigation into the fate of African art objects during World War II.
