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Painting stolen by Nazis from influential Berlin family recovered in New York

  • October 23, 2019

A painting seized by the Nazis in 1933 from the family of an influential German-Jewish philanthropist in Berlin has been recovered by the FBI from a US museum.

The work, by American artist Gari Melchers and titled “Winter,” had been part of the Arkell Museum’s collection until mid-September, when the FBI seized the painting.

It had first been purchased at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition in 1900 by German entrepreneur and philanthropist Rudolf Mosse. Mosse was the publisher of various newspapers between the period of 1867 and the 1930s in Germany, including the Berliner Tageblatt.

Read more: Nazi-looted art: Why are restitutions still the exception?

The Nazis persecuted the Mosse family because they were Jewish and due to the Berliner Tageblatt‘s outspoken critical stance of the Nazi party, according to court documents. Shortly after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, the Mosse family was forced to leave Germany.

After the family fled, the Nazi party took control of their art collection, including Melchers’ “Winter.”

Bartlett Arkell, an American industrialist, purchased the work from a gallery in New York City in 1934 for his personal collection, which subsequently became part of the collection at the museum in upstate New York that bears his name.

  • Where did the Gurlitt collection artwork come from?

    Max Beckmann, Zandvoort Beach Cafe, 1934

    The watercolor by the Jewish painter Max Beckmann entered Gurlitt’s collection only in 1945. Held by the allied occupation forces at the Central Collecting Point in Wiesbaden from 1945-1950, it was returned to Hildebrand Gurlitt in 1950. Before working for the Nazi regime, Gurlitt had collected and exhibited modern art, curating Beckmann’s last exhibition in 1936 before the artist fled Germany.

  • Where did the Gurlitt collection artwork come from?

    Otto Griebel, Veiled Woman, 1926

    This work was owned by lawyer and art collector Fritz Salo Glaser. Artists of Dresden’s avant-garde scene were his guests in the 1920s — as was the young Hildebrand Gurlitt. It is not known how Gurlitt came to possess the painting. It was confiscated in 1945 and later returned. Of Jewish heritage, Glaser only narrowly avoided deportation to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1945.

  • Where did the Gurlitt collection artwork come from?

    Claude Monet, Waterloo Bridge, 1903

    This painting by the famous impressionist is not suspected to have been looted. The artist sold it to the Durand Ruel Gallery in 1907. The Jewish art merchant and publisher Paul Cassirer is said to have given it to Marie Gurlitt as a present, and she left it to her son Hildebrand Gurlitt in 1923.

  • Where did the Gurlitt collection artwork come from?

    Thomas Couture, Portrait of a Seated Young Woman, 1850

    This work by the French painter was only recently identified as a looted work of art. A short handwritten note was the clue for the provenance researchers. The picture was quite likely in the collection of the Jewish politician Georges Mandel, whose family stakes a claim to the work. It is not known how it came into Gurlitt’s possession.

  • Where did the Gurlitt collection artwork come from?

    Auguste Rodin, Crouching Woman, approx. 1882

    Hildebrand Gurlitt must have acquired this work by the French sculptor between 1940 and 1945. Previously belonging to the Frenchman Eugene Rudier, it entered circulation in 1919 at an auction by Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau, who is said to have received it as a present from the artist.

  • Where did the Gurlitt collection artwork come from?

    In Gurlitt’s apartment

    Cornelius Gurlitt hoarded the sculpture along with many other artworks for decades in his Munich apartment. Before his death in 2014, he consented to have his stocks researched and — should they include articles of stolen art — have them returned to their rightful owners in accordance with the Washington Principles on Nazi-looted art.

  • Where did the Gurlitt collection artwork come from?

    Albrecht Dürer, Knight, Death and Devil, 1513

    This copper engraving by Albrecht Dürer once belonged to the Falkeisen-Huber Gallery in Basel. It is not known how it got there or how long it was there however. In 2012 the engraving turned up in Cornelius Gurlitt’s collection. “Old masters” like Dürer were very important to the National Socialists’ view of art and were often exploited for propaganda.

  • Where did the Gurlitt collection artwork come from?

    Edvard Munch, Ashes II, 1899

    The provenance of this drawing is completely unknown. It is certain, however, that Hitler considered Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s work “degenerate art.” Some 82 pieces by Munch were confiscated in German museums in 1937.

  • Where did the Gurlitt collection artwork come from?

    Francois Boucher, Male Nude, undated

    Hitler venerated 18th century French painting. He secured exceptional paintings for his own collection by targeting the collection of the Rothschild Family after the annexation of Austria. Hildebrand Gurlitt supplemented them with drawings by renowned French painters. He acquired this work by Boucher from a Parisian art merchant in 1942.

  • Where did the Gurlitt collection artwork come from?

    Carl Spitzweg: Alpine Valley with Dairymaid, 1871

    This painting was probably Hitler’s personal property from 1934 onward. Not a part of the Gurlitt collection, it has been on loan from the Federal Republic of Germany since 1973 and shown in Dusseldorf’s Kunstpalast Museum. The image reflects Hitler’s taste in art, and he wished to have such works at the “Führer Museum.”


 Colonial heritage: Germany aims to improve restitution process

The museum’s executive director and chief curator Suzan D. Friedlander said the museum “was of course very upset to learn the history of the painting’s seizure from the Mosse family by the Nazis in 1933,” and waived all its rights to the painting.

Read more: The turbulent history of Klimt’s Nazi-seized works

In 2017, heirs of Rudolf Mosse collaborated with the Free University Berlin to search for confiscated works from Mosse’s collection. The project has resulted in the restitution of a number of works of art.

The recovered painting, which is also known as “Skaters” or “Snow,” is being held by the FBI in Albany until it can be reunited with the Mosse family. 

The artist Gari Melchers was the son of a German immigrant born in Detroit.

Last year, the World Jewish Congress accused Germany of doing “far too little” to identify and return Nazi-looted art. 

mmc/stb (AP)

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Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/painting-stolen-by-nazis-from-influential-berlin-family-recovered-in-new-york/a-50955672?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

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