Private company

Wildenstein Institute

French art institute (1970–2017)

The Wildenstein Institute was a French art institute that published catalogues raisonnés and scholarly inventories.² It was founded by Daniel Wildenstein.¹ It is part of Wildenstein & Company.¹ Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1970Founded¹

Websitewww.wildenstein-institute.fr

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The Wildenstein Institute was a French art institute that published catalogues raisonnés and scholarly inventories.²

Corporate structure

Wildenstein Institute is part of a group headed by Wildenstein & Company. 3 entities, 2 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Wildenstein & Company New York, New York, United States
- Wildenstein Institute
- 618 BUSHWICK OWNER LLC Subsidiary · New York, New York, United States
- A Boy in a Red-lined Cloak Owned
- Edge of the Woods Near L'Hermitage, Pontoise Owned
- Fountain of Venus Owned
- Laban Searching for his Stolen Household Gods Owned
- Lormes: Goat-Girl Sitting Beside a Stream in a Forest Owned
- Madonna and Child Enthroned Owned
- Mme. Dufresne Owned
- Portrait of a Woman as Diana Owned
- Portrait of Cardinal Guillaume Dubois Owned
- Portrait of Infante Don Luis de Borbon Owned
- Portrait of Jean-Gabriel du Theil at the Signing of the Treaty of Vienna Owned
- Portrait of King Charles II of England Owned
- Reading Owned
- Sophie Crouzet Owned · United States
- Spring Owned
- Spring Flowers Owned
- Still Life with Herrings Owned
- Symbolic Head Owned
- The Lock at Pontoise Owned
- View of Bordeaux, from the Quai des Chartrons Owned
- Virgin and Child in a Landscape Owned
- Woman Reading Owned
- Woman Sewing before a Garden Window Owned

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

Founded by Daniel Wildenstein in 1970.¹

The institute was founded in 1970 by Daniel Wildenstein as the Fondation Wildenstein, and it was renamed the Wildenstein Institute in 1990. It was an offshoot of the art dealing company (Wildenstein & Co.) owned by the Wildenstein family for five generations.

Until 2017, it housed the historic documents and photographic archives assembled by Nathan Wildenstein (the company founder) and his son Georges, which have been added to by subsequent generations. Daniel Wildenstein established the Wildenstein Index Number used by the institute to identify paintings.

It published catalogues raisonnés and scholarly inventories of impressionists such as Monet, and other modern artists such as Gauguin. It described itself as a center for research in art history. It was headed by Guy Wildenstein.

In 2017, the Wildenstein Institute gifted its entire archive and the rights to all of its publications to the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc., a non-profit art research foundation based in the U.S. and founded by Guy Wildenstein and the Hasso Plattner Foundation.

From Wikipedia’s article on Wildenstein Institute, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.³

Leadership

Who has led Wildenstein Institute, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

FounderDaniel Wildenstein¹

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Wildenstein & Company

From Wikidata.¹

Acquisitions

Succeeded by Wildenstein Plattner Institute¹

Controversies and legal

Controversy

In 2011, a police raid discovered and seized 30 paintings valued at tens of millions of pounds from the institute's Paris headquarters (see: Guy Wildenstein#Criticism).

The Institute published a Monet catalogue raisonné, which is regarded as the definitive, scholarly compendium of Monet paintings. Acceptance of a Monet by the Institute would significantly increase the commercial value of a painting. The Institute did not authenticate a painting (Bords de la Seine à Argenteuil) investigated by Fiona Bruce (a journalist) and Philip Mould (an art dealer and historian) in the BBC television programme Fake or Fortune?, which first aired on 19 June 2011. The institute has since been featured again on the programme, variously accepting and rejecting the team's efforts.

One of these instances featured on Fake or Fortune?, first aired July 2015, and involved a painting purported to be by Pierre-Auguste Renoir held at Picton Castle, Wales. The Bernheim-Jeune is one of several sources that established provenance for the "Picton Renoir." The BBC investigators unearthed several lines of authenticity, including additional levels of provenance with photographic records of sale and forensically matching pigments and canvas to Renoir. The Bernheim-Jeune Gallery had approved the painting as genuine and have included it in Renoir's catalogue raisonné. The Wildenstein Institute declined to accept the painting citing insufficient evidence. After meeting privately with Guy-Patrice Dauberville of Bernheim-Jeune, host Fiona Bruce quoted Dauberville as saying, "[The Wildenstein institute] would be thrilled to turn it down." She said the rivalry between the Wildenstein Institute and Bernheim-Jeune was "now out in the open" and she described it as "ugly".