Nazi-looted painting recovered from New York museum
Michaela Cavanagh AP
October 23, 2019
The FBI seized the painting that had first been purchased by a prominent German-Jewish publisher in 1900. In 2017, his heirs launched an effort to recover stolen works.
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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.
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.
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.
Gurlitt Collection: Germany's most infamous Nazi-looted art trove
So far, only 14 works were proven to have been looted under the Nazis among the some 1,500 found in Gurlitt's hoard.
Image: Bundeskunsthalle / Foto: David Ertl
Carl Spitzweg, 'Playing the Piano,' ca. 1840
This drawing by Carl Spitzweg was seized in 1939 from Jewish music publisher Heinri Hinrichsen, who was killed at the Auschwitz death camp in 1942. It was acquired by Nazi art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt — and later found among the spectacular collection of works hoarded by his son, Cornelius Gurlitt. The work was auctioned by Christie's at the request of Hinrichsen's heirs.
Image: Staatsanwaltschaft Augsburg/Lost Art Datenbank
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.
Image: Bundeskunsthalle / Foto: David Ertl
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.
Image: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH / Foto: David Ertl
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.
Image: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH / Foto: David Ertl
Thomas Couture, 'Portrait of a Seated Young Woman,' 1850
A short handwritten note allowed provenance researchers to identify this work by the French painter as a looted work of art. The picture was seized from the collection of Jewish politician and resistance leader Georges Mandel, who was executed by French fascists near Paris in 1944. German Culture Minister Monika Grütters (right) handed over the work to Mandel's heirs in January 2019.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Schreiber
Paul Signac, 'Quai de Clichy,' 1887
The activist group Provenance Research Gurlitt identified this painting by French neo-impressionist Paul Signac as stolen Jewish property in October 2018. Gaston Prosper Levy fled Nazi-occupied France in 1940. Occupying soldiers are believed to have looted his art collection shortly before his escape. The painting was returned to Levy's family in 2019.
Image: picture-alliance/Keystone/A. Anex
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.
Image: Bundeskunsthalle / Foto: David Ertl
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.
Image: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH / Foto: David Ertl
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.
Image: Bundeskunsthalle/Foto: Mick Vincenz
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.
Image: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH / Foto: David Ertl
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.
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.
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.