Two of the most valuable works from the Cornelius Gurlitt collection, Woman with a Fan, (1923) by Henri Matisse, and Two Riders on a Beach (1901) by Max Liebermann, will be returned to the families of their original owners. “Thankfully Gurlitt liked our Liebermann and kept it prized on his wall,” says Mr. Matteis, the lawyer representing David Toren, heir to the Liebermann work. (more…)
Cornelius Gurlitt, the Munich man at the center of the discovery of hundreds of artworks potentially looted from Jewish collectors during World War II, has announced that he will begin returning the works to their rightful owners. The return will begein this week, as Seated Woman/Woman Sitting in Armchair, an iconic Matisse, is delivered to the descendants of French collector Paul Rosenberg. “Mr. Gurlitt has given us free rein to return those pictures that belonged to Jews to their previous owners or their descendants,” says court-appointed lawyer Christoph Edel. (more…)
Cornelius Gurlitt, the German man at the center of the controversy over thousands of Nazi-looted artworks found in his Munich apartment, has launched a website in an attempt to tell his side of the story. “Some of what has been reported about my collection and myself is not correct or not quite correct,” Gurlitt says on the site. “Consequently my lawyers, my legal caretaker and I want to make available information to objectify the discussion about my collection and my person.” (more…)
The German government has announced plans to search its public museums through an independent center, the Wall Street Journal reports. The news follows the ongoing outcry over the seized collection of Cornelius Gurlitt, and the attempted claims laid by families from whom the art was looted during WWII. “These are delicate matters to articulate,” says German Culture Minister Monika Grütters. “It’s a matter of earning back trust.” (more…)
New York Magazine has published an extensive profile of Jeffrey Deitch, marking the former MOCA head’s return to New York. Speaking on his inspirations, sense of history, and views on creative collaboration, the piece offers a broad view into Deitch’s creative and entrepreneurial views .“I’m very aware of the connections between art, literature, and music. I look for aesthetic energy, aesthetic movements that are so big that they’re too big to just be an art alone, that they spill over,” he says. (more…)
A recent investigation into the collection of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has uncovered 139 works looted during World War II. The results of a 4-year study, the works have been placed on a website, inviting prior owners to make claims on the return of the work, including pieces by Matisse and Isaac Israels. “We know that there were doubtful transactions concerning works acquired before 1940, after Kristallnacht,” said Siebe Weide of the Dutch Museum Association. (more…)
Despite a vocal commitment to the return of Nazi-looted works to the proper owners by French culture minister Aurélie Filippetti, the French government has taken few steps towards a faster, more efficacious practices towards stolen works. While over half of the over 100,000 works stolen from the country during the war have been recovered, a low percentage of works have found their way back to their original owners, which Filippetti blames on “the deaths of the victims and their direct descendants, and not because of a lack of will on the part of museums.” (more…)
The French Government has announced that it will return seven paintings taken from Jewish owners by invading Nazi forces in the early-to-mid 20th Century. The hand-over is part of new efforts to return stolen works to their rightful owners. “It’s as much a moral issue as a scientific one.” Said French culture minister Aurélie Filippetti, who underlined a need for a “proactive search” to return all looted works to their rightful owners. (more…)
