70 years after being robbed by the Nazis, a Matisse reappears at the Center Pompidou

It’s opening day in March 2012 at Centre Pompidou in Paris. In the galleries, around sixty paintings by Henri Matisse hang on the picture rails. Dedicated to the artist’s series and pairs, the exhibition deciphers the painter’s approach. From variations to variations, the canvases follow one another in a course of eight rooms to pierce the mystery. Early works, drawings, blue cut papers on white backgroundseverything is there. Blue dress, profile in front of the fireplace, he shouldn’t be there. Its label says: “Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden”, a private cultural institution in Norway, which lent the canvas for the occasion. But the Matisse catches the eye of Christopher Marinello, an investigator from Art Loss Register, specialist in the recovery of stolen objects…

From 1940s Paris to Oslo, the blue dress has traveled. She belonged to Paul RosenbergParisian art dealer, whose fault was to be born Jewish at a time when anti-Semitism…