Contemporary Cases of Nazi Era Looted Art and their Restorations

For this presentation I found three artworks that were interesting to me and thought talking about them would be best suited for this topic and presentation.  The three artworks that I chose were the Portrait of Wally by Egon Schiele, The Rue Saint-Honoré by Camille Pissarro, and the Portrait of a Hunter With Dog by Aelbert Cuyp.  I chose to do research on this topic because of my interest in the history of World War II and how art was saved during this time and how art was shipped all over the world to different places just so that the Nazi's wouldnt gain access to some of the most beautiful pieces of artwork this world has seen.  The three artworks I chose were works that were either stolen or lost during this time and they resurfaced and were brought back to the rightful owners.  

This is the Portrait of Wally by Egon Schiele.  This portrait is one of the earliest cases to bring the issue of Nazi looted art to the fore.  In an article written by Isaac Kaplan, he writes about how this painting speaks to how lawsuits are not inherently inevitable, but can be the result of one party refusing to work towards an equitable solution.  This painting had belonged to Jewish art dealer Lea Bondi Jaray.  Prior to escaping to London, she sold the painting to a Nazi, Friedrich Welz.  After the war was over the artwork was returned to Austrian authorities.  Kaplan continues to write that In 1953 Bondi found an Schiele expert named Dr. Rudolf Leopold and asked him where her stolen work had ended up.  Leopold told her it was in the Galerie Belvedere but that it would be impossible to retrieve and that the Belvedere would never part with it. However, Leopold turned around and acquired Portrait of Wally from the gallery in exchange for other works.  Leopold had then sent the artwork to the Museum of Modern Art in New York for an exhibition not knowing the work was stolen.  The US Attorney filed for the seizure of the same painting.  But a few short weeks before the case was to begin, Leopold died.  The foundation paid the heirs $19 million and the painting remained in Austria.

This piece of artwork is The Rue Saint-Honoré by Camille Pissarro.  This painting had been in the possession of Lilly Cassirer who during the war was a grandmother looking to obtain a visa and flee Germany.  In 2001, the painting was found in Madrid Spain in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.  Lilly’s heir, Claude Cassirer sued to have it returned.  Spain asserted that they did not actually take the painting (because the Germans did) so therefore could not be sued in the United States. But the courts eventually disagreed, and the case proceeded.  Kaplan continues on to write that, the court ultimately decided to apply Spanish law, which includes something called “adverse possession.” Basically, “the concept that if you have a piece of property for long enough it becomes yours.”  Therefore the court awarded the painting to Spain.  

This painting is the Portrait of a Hunter With Dog by Aelbert Cuyp.  This painting was Stolen by Hermann Goring (Nazi) and is one of the most recent works of art to surface.  Catherine Hickley writes that this piece of artwork surfaced last year (2019) at an auction house in Bamberg.  The Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, fled the Netherlands and left the work behind when the Nazis invaded in 1940.  Hickley states that the Bamberg auction house got in touch with Harald Hein, who had previously purchased the painting at a charity auction.  Hein had agreed to restitute the painting in return for a share of the proceeds of its sale at Döbritz, an auction house in Frankfurt. Döbritz estimates the work’s value at €700,000.

                                                                        Sources

Editorial, Artsy, and Isaac Kaplan. “3 Cases That Explain Why Restituting Nazi-Looted Art Is So Difficult.” Artsy, 5 July 2017, www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-3-cases-explain-restituting-nazi-looted-art-difficult. 

“The Art Hidden from Nazi Bombs.” BBC Culture, BBC, www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180413-the-art-hidden-from-nazi-bombs. 

Hickley, Catherine. “Nazi-Looted Dutch Old Master to Be Auctioned in Settlement between Heir and Current Holder.” The Art Newspaper, The Art Newspaper, 15 Oct. 2020, www.theartnewspaper.com/news/nazi-looted-dutch-old-master-to-be-auctioned-in-settlement-between-heir-and-current-holder.