In the 1920s, Paris was an art market center.
Dealers on the Left Bank were known for nurturing adventurous new talent, with Léonce Roseberg showing Georges Braque and Fernand Léger, while Paul Guillaume was promoting Derain and Matisse. Meanwhile, the city’s secondary art market, led by the Hôtel Drouot auction house and dealers including Nathan Wildenstein, and Ernest and René Gimpel, was a world leader during the interwar years. But the outbreak of World War II prompted an exodus of leading dealers to New York, and the French scene was shortly eclipsed. Many cite Robert Rauschenberg’s Golden Lion win at the 1964 Venice Biennale as the final seal of US ascendance over the French art scene.