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George Joseph Demotte, alternatively Georges-Joseph Demotte (1877-1923) was a Belgian-born art dealer, the owner of galleries in Paris (27 rue de Berri) and New York (8 East 57th Street) specializing in the sale of medieval French art. His portrait was painted by Henri Matisse in 1918. Obtaining an illuminated copy of the Persian ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), he broke it up into sheets to maximize profits by selling the illustrations individually.〔Yael Rice, "(Preservation: Essay )", for the exhibition ''Iranica'' at Bryn Mawr College, 2005.〕 In 1923 he sued his former New York agent, Jean Vigoroux, in the French courts for embezzlement,〔(Vigoroux vs. Demotte ), ''Time'', Jul. 23, 1923. Accessed 9 June 2010.〕 while simultaneously suing Sir Joseph Duveen for slander in the American courts, for having declared a medieval statuette that Demotte had sold a fake.〔Meryle Secrest, ''Duveen: A Life in Art'' (University of Chicago Press, 2005), p. 208.〕 Neither suit had been settled when Demotte died, accidentally shot by a friend and fellow art-dealer, Otto Wegener, while returning from a boar-hunting trip.〔("Demotte Killed in Gun Accident; International Art Dealer Shot Dead While on Hunting Expedition in France" ), ''The New York Times'', Sept. 5, 1923. Accessed 9 June 2010.〕 Wegener was cleared of homicide by the French courts, but ordered to pay compensation to Demotte's family.〔(Compensation ), ''Time'', Dec. 31, 1923. Accessed 9 June 2010.〕 His galleries, estimated at the time of his death to be worth $2,000,000, passed to his seventeen-year-old son Lucien Demotte (died 1934).〔(Demotte Fils ), ''Time'', Dec. 17, 1923. Accessed 9 June 2010.〕 ==Bibliography== Christine Vivet-Peclet, "Les sculptures du Louvre acquises auprès de Georges-Joseph Demotte : de la polémique à la réhabilitation ?", ''La revue des musées de France. Revue du Louvre'', 3 (2013), pp. 57-70. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「George Joseph Demotte」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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