Le Passé was an art and antiques gallery founded in 1939 in New York by Paula and Nicholas de Koenigsberg, who already had previous experience in the business. The gallery opened branches in New York, Buenos Aires and Mexico City. Although the business enjoyed a certain prestige, it was also surrounded by suspicion, particularly during World War II, when the FBI intercepted correspondence addressed to its headquarters in Mexico as part of investigations into art trafficking linked to the Nazi regime. The often encrypted communications fueled doubts, but the investigations never yielded conclusive evidence (Montemurro, 2014). His sons, Nicholas and Victor, continued the business.