War loot lost in paradise
On June 16, 1951, Louis Rottier visited the ‘Gauguin of Bali’, the Belgian painter Le Mayeur and his wife Ni Pollok. Before the war, Louis Rottier had been an avid art collector, but during the Japanese occupation he had not only lost his wife and almost his own life, but also all of his possessions. However, after the war Louis Rottier got a few artefacts back, as did Le Mayeur.
During their sumptuous lunch on the beachfront of Sanur, Bali they undoubtedly discussed life on the island, art, and the period of the occupation by the Japanese. The Brussels-born painter Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur-de Merprès (1880- 1958) was one of Bali’ s most famous foreign artists. He had formed his life and artistic career painting the beauty of the island and especially the grace of his wife and muse Ni Nyoman Pollok, a Balinese?legong?dancer.
Le Mayeur had built a villa for himself and his wife in Sanur and had added several structures over the years. The enclosed compound consists of both the villa, a temple, several smaller shrines, a pond and a pavilion for receiving guests, performing music and dances, performed of course by Pollok and her friends.
The villa is conceived as a Balinese architectural ‘jewellery box’, filled with art and local and foreign artefacts, showcasing the art of Le Mayeur and his collections. Every inch of the rooms is covered with delicate woodcarvings, decorated with red lacquer and gold leaf decorations which enhance the framed works of Le Mayeur. He painted atmospheric renderings of Balinese nature, culture and especially women, but also faraway places like Delhi and Venice.
During the Japanese occupation of the Indonesian archipelago (1942-1945) Louis Rottier and his family had spent 3,5 years in several internment camps. He had been beaten up and mistreated for days by the Japanese secret police Kempeitai. Le Mayeur, in contrast, had only been placed under house arrest by the Japanese authorities. The reasoning was, that the Netherlands was at war with Japan and Belgium was not.
After the war, as Louis Zweers in his book ‘Buit’ (2020) has written, Le Mayeur had been able to retrieve some of his works from then President Sukarno. Sukarno had taken two colourful, semi-erotic paintings entitled 'Enjoying Life' in consignment to his summer palace on Bali. However, the president and company suddenly had to leave on state business to Jakarta, taking the paintings with the bare-breasted beauties with them. By taking a swift plane to the palace In Jakarta, Le Mayeur had forced the president’s hand to pay him what was due.
Louis Rottier had less of a drama in retrieving some of his looted possessions. In 1946 he found some of his beloved art works in a storehouse in Jakarta. These included among others a blanc-de-chine porcelain ?figurine of Quan Yin and a painting of a Zealand peasant woman by the Dutch-Belgian painter Truus Claes (1890- 1954).
As Zweers points out, all stolen goods which the Japanese had amassed during the war had been administrated by the Tekisan Kanribu, located in the center of Jakarta. The movable property department was headed by the Japanese Okamura. In 1943 Tekisan officials had quickly set up improvised warehouses on Madura Road and in the Menteng district. ?
This was still the place where Louis after the war could retrieve his property; dusty and discarded, stacked in a storehouse. The two artefacts as well as a Val Saint Lambert crystal bowl were not much, but extremely dear personal objects, reminding him of his former life and his beloved wife Tonny Rottier-Burgers. She died in the internment camp of Belalau, Sumatra in May 1945, few months before the liberation of the camps.
A few months after this visit to Le Mayeur, Louis Rottier would retire to the Netherlands, after having lived and worked in the Indonesian archipelago since 1916.
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Le Mayeurs villa and vibrant canvases can still be enjoyed on the beach in Sanur, Bali.
#art #stolenart #museum #WW2 #TweedeWereldoorlog #Indonesia
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