Léone-Noëlle Meyer

Léone-Noëlle Meyer (born 8 November 1939) is a French heiress, pediatrician, businesswoman and philanthropist. The adoptive granddaughter of the founder of the Galeries Lafayette, she served as its chairman from 1998 to 2005. She was a pediatrician for 45 years. She has made humanitarian trips to South America, Africa and Asia, and she has supported Jewish causes and the Paris Opera. She was awarded the 2007 Medal of the Great Donor by the French Ministry of Culture for her philanthropy.

Léone-Noëlle Meyer
Born8 November 1939
Paris, France
Alma materSciences Po
Occupation(s)Pediatrician, businesswoman, philanthropist
SpouseGeorges Meyer
Parent(s)Raoul Meyer
Yvonne Bader
RelativesThéophile Bader (grandfather)
Ginette Moulin (cousin)

Early life

Léone-Noëlle Meyer was born on 8 November 1939 in Paris.[1] Her father was unknown; her mother was a seamstress.[1] Both her mother and her grandmother were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942.[2] She grew up in an orphanage in Rueil-Malmaison until 1946, when she was adopted by Yvonne Bader, the daughter of Théophile Bader, the founder of the Galeries Lafayette,[1] and Raoul Meyer, who served as its chairman from 1944 to 1970.[3] She grew up in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.[1]

Meyer earned a bachelor of laws in 1960 and graduated from Sciences Po in 1961.[4] She earned a doctorate in medicine in 1972.[4]

Career

Meyer began her career as a pediatrician at the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital.[4] She subsequently worked in ambulances for medical emergencies, and she taught at the Baudelocque Port-Royal Midwife School.[4] Eventually, she opened a private practice as a pediatrician.[4] She was a pediatrician for 45 years.

Meyer served as the chairman of the board of directors of Galeries Lafayette from 1998 to 2005.[1] During her tenure, she visited the shop floor, suggested the salaries of shop assistants should be raised, and installed air conditioning to improve their working conditions.[1] She sold her 29.5% stake to her cousin Ginette Moulin's family for €930 million in 2005.[3]

Meyer owns a stake in Publicis.[2]

Philanthropy and political activity

Meyer went on humanitarian trips to Colombia, El Salvador, Cambodia, Mozambique and Burma.[1][4] She has made charitable contributions to the Paris Opera and the Pasteur Institute.[4] She donated a sailing boat to the École des mousses in the Brest Naval Training Centre in 2011.[2] Meyer has also made charitable contributions to the Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France.[4] Additionally, she has supported aliah of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.[4] Meyer was awarded the Medal of the Great Donor by the French Ministry of Culture in 2007.[4] She turned down the Legion of Honour in 2010.[5]

Meyer made political contributions to the Union for a Popular Movement.[5]

Personal life

Meyer married to Georges Meyer in 1964;[4] he went on to serve as the chairman of the Galeries Lafayette,[1] and he died in 1998.[4] They had three sons: Alexandre, David and Raphaël.[4]

Meyer resides in Paris,[1] and she serves on the board of the synagogue on the rue Copernic in the 16th arrondissement.[4] In 2006, she paid €151 million in solidarity tax.[6]

Nazi-looted art restitution case

In 2014, Meyer sued the University of Oklahoma and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum for the return of a Camille Pissarro painting that had been looted by Nazis from her father, Raoul Meyer, in 1941 during the German occupation of France.[7] The refusal of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum caused Oklahoma's Republican state representative Mike Reynolds to call on the American Association of Museums to review the museum's accredidation status for violating ethical bylaws.[8]

In 2016, after a long legal battle, during which the museum refused to restitute Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep (Bergère rentrant des moutons) by Camille Pissarro, Meyer arrived at a settlement with Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, and was able to bring the painting back to France.[9][10][11][12]

However the settlement specified that the painting not remain in France but, after five years,[13] return to the United States and that the process of transferring the painting be repeated every three years in a kind of shared custody agreement. The painting, which had been displayed at Paris’ Musée d’Orsay since its return to France, was due to return to Oklahoma in 2021. In 2020 Meyers contested the agreement as unworkable, initiating a legal action in a French court.[14] The Fred Jones Jr Museum sued Meyers, demanding that she be fined "$3.5m in the US and face penalties of up to $100,000 a day for contempt of court if she does not halt proceedings in France in which she is seeking full ownership of the impressionist work".[15]

On 1 June 2021, Meyer, who was 81 years old, abandoned the fight, relinquishing ownership of the Pissarro painting to the University of Oklahoma, stating, "I have no other choice.[16]

See also

References
  1. Lauer, Stéphane (April 27, 2005). "Léone-Noëlle Meyer, l'adieu aux Galeries". Le Monde. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  2. "Mécénat. Un voilier pour les mousses". Le Télégramme. March 31, 2011. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  3. Bertrand, Philippe (March 4, 2016). "Ginette Moulin, la dame des Galeries Lafayette". Les Echos. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  4. "Remise de la médaille de Grand Donateur du ministère de la Culture et de la Communication à Madame Georges Meyer". French Ministry of Culture. April 16, 2007. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  5. "LÉGION D'HONNEUR : LES RÉSEAUX SARKOZY SONT DÉCORÉS À LA CHAÎNE". Capital. December 21, 2010. Retrieved May 2, 2017. Nous avons fait les comptes : sur les 22 adhérents connus à ce jour (la liste est confidentielle), seuls trois ne l'ont pas à la boutonnière : Léone-Noëlle Meyer, ex-directrice des Galeries Lafayette, l'a refusée, l'homme d'affaires Maurice Bidermann ne peut pas l'obtenir car son casier judiciaire n'est plus vierge, et Jean-François Damour, le directeur des restaurants La Criée, attend patiemment son heure…
  6. "Léone Meyer a payé 151 millions d'euros au titre de l'ISF 2006". Les Echos. July 23, 2007. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  7. Cascone, Sarah (2014-03-04). "Holocaust Survivor Sues for Return of Looted Camille Pissarro Painting". Artnet News. Archived from the original on 2018-04-17. Retrieved 2021-11-14.
  8. Alex; Forbes, er (2014-11-13). "American Association of Museums Goes Easy on Nazi Loot". Artnet News. Archived from the original on 2014-11-27. Retrieved 2021-11-14. Both the WJRO and Republican state representative Mike Reynolds sent letters to AAM president Ford W. Bell condemning his unwillingness to investigate the Fred Jones Jr. Museum's accreditation status
  9. Cabut, Marie-Caroline (February 25, 2016). "UN PISSARRO VOLÉ PAR LES NAZIS RENDU À LA FRANCE". Libération. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  10. Kutner, Max (26 April 2017). "NAZI-LOOTED PAINTING RETURNS TO PARIS ALMOST 80 YEARS AFTER THEFT". newsweek.com. Newsweek. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  11. Bowley, Graham (February 23, 2016). "University of Oklahoma Agrees to Return Pissarro Painting Looted by Nazis". Artsbeat New York Times blog. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  12. "French Woman Sues University of Oklahoma to Recover Nazi-Looted Art". lootedart.com. The Central Registry of Information on looted Cultural Property. 21 January 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2018. Leone Meyer, the daughter of Raoul Meyer, a Jewish businessman in Paris during the Nazi occupation of France, is attempting to recover the 1886 impressionist work "Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep," by Camille Pissarro, the Oklahoman reported this week. It has been hanging in the university's Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art since 2000. Raoul Meyer collected a large number of French impressionist paintings before World War II. His art collection was seized by the Nazis during the occupation of France and the Vichy government.
  13. Writers, World's Editorial. "Tulsa World Editorial: OU finally to return Nazi loot to rightful owner". Tulsa World. Archived from the original on 2021-11-14. Retrieved 2021-11-14.
  14. Carjaval, Doreen (2020-12-17). "Will a Looted Pissarro End Up in Oklahoma, or France?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2021-01-02.
  15. "French woman faces court threat in 'quest' to win back Nazi-looted Pissarro". the Guardian. 2021-02-08. Archived from the original on 2021-02-11. Retrieved 2021-11-14. A French woman is being threatened with multi-million-dollar fines by a US court if she continues a legal battle to retrieve a Pissarro painting the Nazis stole from her adoptive father.
  16. Cascone, Sarah (2021-06-01). "'I Have No Other Choice': Holocaust Survivor Relinquishes Her Claim to a Looted Camille Pissarro Painting". Artnet News. Retrieved 2021-11-14.
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