The art collection formerly owned by the Jewish art dealer Alfred Flechtheim is one of the world's most disputed estates. His heirs are now suing the German state of Bavaria.
Image: picture alliance/akg-images
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The heirs to Alfred Flechtheim, a famous German Jewish art collector, are seeking the return of eight paintings by Max Beckmann, Juan Gris and Paul Klee, which they say were looted by Nazis.
Flechtheim's grand-nephew Michael Hulton and his stepmother Penny Hulton have filed a complaint against the German state of Bavaria on Monday.
The dispute between the heirs and the state of Bavaria has been ongoing for years. Their lawsuit is one of many seeking to reclaim artworks seized or stolen by the Nazis.
According to the heirs' complaint, Flechtheim was forced to leave the paintings behind when he fled Berlin for Paris in May 1933 to escape Nazi persecution, four months after Adolf Hitler seized power.
They claim some of the paintings have been through the hands of Hildebrand Gurlitt, the Nazi art dealer who was allowed to sell works deemed as "degenerate." His name became well-known when some 1,400 paintings were discovered in his reclusive son's apartment in Munich in 2012.
The eight paintings include Beckmann's "Duchess of Malvedi" (1926), "Still Life with Cigar Box" (1926), "Quappi in Blue" (1926), "Dream-Chinese Fireworks" (1927), "Champagne Still Life" (1929) and "Still Life with Studio Window" (1931); Gris' "Cruche et Verre Sur un Table" (1916) and Klee's "Grenzen des Verstandes" (1927).
Some of these works are on display at Munich's Pinakothek der Moderne museum, despite its public commitment to "fair and just" treatment for Nazi-looted art.
Alfred Flechtheim (1878-1937) was one of the most important German art collectors at the beginning of the 20th century. He died impoverished in London in 1937, and his widow Betti committed suicide as she faced deportation, the complaint adds.
Alfred Flechtheim: Fighter for the avant-garde
The collection of Jewish art dealer Alfred Flechtheim was considered the most significant of the 20th Century. Then the Nazis came and scattered it to the four winds. Now, the paintings are displayed in many museums.
Image: Public Domain
Common passion
When Alfred Flechtheim, the son of a German industrialist, discovered art as his passion, there were no limits. He invested his money and his wife Betti's dowry in paintings. He encouraged young wild painters from the Parisian scene - and annoyed many from the German art scene. Nevertheless, he was responsible for the breakthrough of modern art in Germany.
Image: gemeinfrei
Stolen Art
With the Nazis, Flechtheim’s successful work came to an abrupt end. As a Jew, he was vilified and forced to flee to London in 1933, where he died penniless four years later. His galleries had been closed by the Nazis - the paintings were seized, sold and hidden. However, the painting "Houses on the Mountain" (1926) by Paul Klee, from Flechtheim’s collection, is now displayed in Stuttgart.
Image: Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Years of arguing
The Flechtheim heirs have been arguing with museums, collectors and galleries about many of the paintings. Many prestigious museums are displaying paintings from the Flechtheim collection, by artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Degas and Munch. Also, this picture by Paul Signac - "Venice" (1908) - is on view in Hamburg.
After Flechtheim’s escape, a close associate appropriated his estate and made money from his belongings. He sold the "Portrait of Tilla Durieux" by Oskar Kokoschka to the art collector Josef Haubrich from Cologne. He, in turn, donated his collection to the city of Cologne in 1946. The Flechtheim heirs sued the city, and it finally had to return the painting worth three million euros in June 2013.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Quick agreement
While Cologne struggled with the return, other museums were more cooperative. The Art Museum of Bonn returned the painting "Lighthouse with rotating rays" (1913) by local expressionist Paul Adolf Seehaus. The heirs were paid and the painting could remain in the museum.
Image: Kunstmuseum Bonn/Reni Hansen
Clear provenance
The provenance, the origin of the image, is not easy to determine - especially when it comes to Nazi-looted art. With this "Runner" by Willi Baumeister (1927) it is, however, clear that the artist gave it to Flechtheim, but later got it back and sold it to the collector Hugo Borst. His heir handed it to the State Gallery of Stuttgart where it remains on display.
Image: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013
Museums work together
To mark the 100th anniversary of the opening of the first Flechtheim Gallery on October 9, 1913 in Düsseldorf, 15 museums are displaying art from his collection. At the same time, a website called AlfredFlechtheim.com has bveen launched, which shows the journey the art took in the past decades. Even this "Still Life with Flowers" (1918) by Expressionist Max Pechstein is part of it.
Whether it was Picasso, Van Gogh, Matisse, Klee, Munch, Cézanne or Pechstein - Flechtheim had pretty much every painter of the early 20th Century under his wing. Many became close friends of his. Not surprisingly, he was often painted by them; here, by Hanns Bolz (1910). Other portraits of Flechtheim are by Ernst Linne Kamp, Karl Hofer and Otto Dix.
