HEIRS - Observations on Provenance

ITALY and NAZI LOOTED ART:

SINCE 1998, WHEN 44 NATIONS SIGNED THE "WASHINGTON PRINCIPLES", ITALY WAS PARTY TO AN INTERNATIONAL EFFORT OF MUSEUMS TO ENABLE JUST AND FAIR SOLUTIONS FOR RIGHTFUL HEIRS OF ARTWORK PLUNDERED DURING THE HOLOCAUST. THAT WOULD INCLUDE OPENESS AND TRANSPARENCY OF ARCHIVES, RESEARCH, IDENTIFICATION AND PUBLICATION OF PAINTINGS WITH GAPS IN OWNERSHIP DURING THE WWII ERA

WHY IS ITALY 12 YEARS BEHIND FRANCE, AUSTRIA, GERMANY, HOLLAND?

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DOUG BLACKBURN of the Tallahasee Democrat filed this extraordinary story....

 

Who could have guessed that a Hollywood-worthy tale of international intrigue was unfolding behind the scenes at a local art museum?

But that's exactly what was happening during the final weeks of a just-closed exhibit at The Mary Brogan Museum of Art & Science.

Federal officials have ordered the Brogan not to return one of 50 paintings on loan from a museum in Italy because it is believed to have been stolen by Nazis during World War II.

 U.S. authorities are working with the Brogan and the Italian government to determine the owners of the painting, and what to do with it, said Chucha Barber, the Brogan's CEO.

 The breathtaking 473-year-old painting, "Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged by a Rogue," is by the Italian Renaissance artist Girolamo Romano. It was part of the 50-piece exhibit, Baroque Painting in Lombardy from Pinacoteca di Brera, which went up March 18 and was disassembled last weekend.

 

Barber, working with a curator from the Pinacoteca museum in Milan, intends to put the Romano painting back on display as the Brogan continues a crucial fundraising campaign. A little more than two months ago, the museum embarked on a five-month, $500,000 capital campaign needed to meet day-to-day expenses and payroll. The museum invested heavily to bring the Baroque exhibit to the Brogan.

 "I see this as a teachable moment regarding the value of museums and museum objects," Barber told the Tallahassee Democrat in an exclusive interview. "It's also one family's incredible story about the atrocities of the Holocaust."

 Barber first learned that the painting may have been stolen by Nazis when she was contacted by Pamela Marsh, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, on July 21. Barber did not know how Marsh came to suspect the painting was tied to Nazi plunder.

 It is believed that the Nazi-sympathetic French Vichy government seized and sold the work in question, when the Gentili family — the Jewish family that owned the masterwork — fled Nazi occupation during the war.

Barber has since received a phone call from Lionel Salem, a grandson of the painting's owner who lives in London. He thanked her for taking care of the painting.

Barber said she was told by Marsh's office that the painting cannot be returned to Italy until the ownership disputes are resolved.

 Giuseppe Gentili's grandchildren have taken legal steps to find and reclaim works lost during the Nazi occupation. In 1999, an appeals court forced the Louvre to return five paintings to the Gentili family.

 Attempts to reach Marsh were unsuccessful.

 Barber did not know the appraised value for Romano's painting, but said it was insured for 1.5 million Euros, or about $2.5 million. A master appraiser from Christie's in New York recently visited the Brogan to examine "Christ Carrying the Cross," Barber said.

 The entire Baroque exhibition that was on display at the Brogan is valued at more than $30 million. Barber estimated that it cost the museum about $425,000 to bring the exhibition to Tallahassee.

 Untold millions of dollars worth of art, currency, jewelry, gold and other cultural artifacts were stolen by the Nazis throughout western Europe from 1933 to the end of World War II. Many objects have been recovered, and there are ongoing efforts to identify and return artworks such as the one at the Brogan.

 Ron Yrabedra, a professor emeritus in art education at Florida A&M University, said there are numerous cases pending worldwide.

 "It's not something that's unheard of because it's happened at so many major museums," Yrabedra said. "The Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York) has had this happen, the Getty (in Los Angeles) has had this happen."

 Earliest records about the Brogan's painting indicate that it dates back to around 1538, when it belonged to the Antonio and Cesare Averoldi collection. On June 4, 1914, it was put up for auction in Paris and bought by Gentili.

 Gentili died in 1940 and his children fled to Canada, spending the duration of the war in Canada and the United States. Other family members, including Gentili's sister, died in concentration camps. The surviving family now lives throughout Europe.

 Barbara Goldstein, president of the Holocaust Education Resource Council, was thrilled to learn about the story behind the painting at the Brogan.

 "This is a great educational tool," she said. "I would tie this in with the movie 'The Rape of Europa.'

 "It's a huge issue legally. How does someone trace an artwork like this, and what is its value? This is a great story.

 

 

DOUG BLACKBURN of the Tallahasee Democrat filed this story. It appeared online at www.news-press.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UK ENABLES RESTITUTION

UK's Restitution Bill Becomes Law

On 27 October 2009 the UK's Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Bill 2008-09 passed unopposed through the third and final reading in the House of Lords, having successfully passed through the House of Commons on 26 June 2009. The bill will now be granted Royal Assent and become law. The Bill will enable restitution of Nazi-looted works of art from all UK museums.

Britain Moves Forward

UK's Restitution Bill Becomes Law

On 27 October 2009 the UK's Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Bill 2008-09 passed unopposed through the third and final reading in the House of Lords, having successfully passed through the House of Commons on 26 June 2009. The bill will now be granted Royal Assent and become law. The Bill will enable restitution of Nazi-looted works of art from all UK museums.

On Why Nazi Looted Art Should Be Restituted

Baroness Deech

(seated, far left)

In the House of Lords Second Reading of the UK's Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Bill, 10 July 2009, Baroness Deech, spoke eloquently of why Nazi looted art should be restituted:

"Art is an ethical issue. Displaying looted art, once it is known to be such, is not just an invasion of privacy and a demonstration that wrongdoers may indeed profit from their crimes; it is also putting on show something that the owners never meant to be seen in such circumstances. It has ceased to be an object of beauty and one that museums can be proud of or use for educational and aesthetic aims. The spectator cannot look at it without seeing the pain and betrayal that led it to be situated there in a national museum. It taints the spectators who knowingly take advantage of the presence of the picture there and it speaks to them of loss and war, not creativity and insight. It is a well known principle in physics that the act of observation changes the object observed and there is something of that principle in our viewing of looted art."

THE INDEPENDENT’S ODD OMMISION

I was disheartened when Andrew Johnson oddly omitted an integral part
of the story in his review of Nancy Yeide's book on Goering's
Collection. Certainly, Goering did not steal everything in his now
documented collection, but nowhere in the story does Johnson point out
that most of the actual theft victims were Jewish, like Paul
Rosenberg, for instance.

We have a great duty to remember the
Holocaust when looking at Goering's collection. It contained many major
works that were taken during the Holocaust from Jewish owners and
collectors.

Just like this one.

Still Life With Sleeping Woman, Matisse

NEW YEAR EPHEMERA

This Jewish New Year card circulated almost 60 years ago, in an orphanage in post- war Germany and given to Chanka Polosieca.

 

She was my mother.

PRAGUE RETURNS TO MEMORY

Czech News Agency-

The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague has issued the book "Returns of Memory," mapping the history of Jewish items in its depositories that come from the property of Jews deported to concentration camps during WW2, museum director Helena Koenigsmarkova said at the book's presentation today.

The museum has revived its collections in cooperation with other researchers and has identified a part of the Jewish items' original owners. Some of the works are part of the museum's permanent display.

The project was prepared by the Documentation Centre of Property Transfers of Cultural Assets of WWII Victims and the Contemporary History Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

The centre, established in 2001, is trying to clarify historical and economic questions around the "Aryanisation," that is the expropriation of Jewish property on racial grounds in the Nazi era. The centre also studies archive sources and depositories of museums and galleries.

Last year, the government extended the centre's work until the end of 2011.

Pavel Jirasek from the centre said the new book is important as it summarises a comprehensive research of one of the largest museums in the Czech Republic and it focuses on decorative art items the identification of which is more complicated than in the case of works of art that are usually registered more thoroughly.

Helena Krejcova, one of the book's authors, noted that similar research is being carried out in the National Gallery and the National Museum plans it, too.

Jirasek pointed out that the steps by Czech culture institutions and the Contemporary History Institute to redress property wrongs from the past set up trend that other countries have also adopted.

Konigsmarkova, however, recalled that over 60 years after the war there are still a number of "unclear acquisitions" in Czech state museums that may originate from the confiscated Jewish property.

Jirasek said Czech state institutions to date possess a lot of of artifacts that could be theoretically returned to the descendants of the Holocaust victims.

The website, prepared by the Culture Ministry along with the Moravian Land Museum, registers almost 7,000 items  from state collections in the Czech Republic that originate or may come from the property of the Holocaust victims and whose original owners were mostly killed by the Nazis.

The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague collects and preserves for future generations — in both national and international contexts — examples of historical and contemporary crafts, as well as applied arts and design.

Allegorical Figure with a Nautilus cup representing Industrial Arts
Designed by Josef Schulz, executed by J. Škarda

Stained glass window on the landing above the first floor

RECOVERY AND COMPENSATION REPAYMENT

Anita Halpern recovered her ancestor's artwork after returning the compensation: See my blogpost THE CASE FOR RESTITUTION

Marilyn Henry is a writer who unravels the most complex aspects of Holocaust restitution in a straightforward way.

In her OPINION   for the Jerusalem Post she offers the art world a source for deeper provenance checking- the records of compensation data belonging to the German government.

These official  German claimant records reflect those artworks that were lost and for which compensation was (in most cases)  granted.

So isn’t this a “case closed” scenario?

NO. Owners who are alive or their heirs may still have rights to them, since the taint of theft has never been erased.

 

ISRAEL MUSEUM WEBSITE

The Israel Museum has launched an on-line catalogue of works of art and Judaica looted during World War II and given to the museum after the war, the museum announced Sunday. The Jerusalem museum houses several hundred works stolen during the Holocaust that either have no record of prior ownership or came from institutions that did not survive the war. The property was originally given to the Bezalel National Museum, the Israel Museum's predecessor, by the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization, which was charged with reclaiming stolen Jewish property and which transferred many works of art and Judaica to Jewish institutions in Israel and around the world. The works were subsequently moved to the Israel Museum in 1965, when the museum was founded. The on-line catalogue - accessible on the Israel Museum's Web site, www.imj.org.il - provides information on paintings, drawings and Judaica objects, and includes images, titles of works, names of artists (if known), countries of origin (if known), dimensions and other identifying characteristics. The Web site, which is entitled World War II Provenance Research Online , was launched in cooperation with the newly-established Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims' Assets in Israel, which had pressured the museum and other public institutions in Israel to publicize the information in accordance with the law. Avraham Roet, head of the restitution organization, praised the museum on Sunday for fully acceding to the request to list the information after initially balking at the move. "This is a major moral accomplishment for the state of Israel," said Roet, a Holocaust survivor. Roet said that this was the first time that a Jewish museum was searching for heirs for artwork stolen in the Holocaust and given to Jewish organizations after the war. The new Web site provides instructions for requesting property restitution. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----                   http://www.jpost.com

Check the website and click JUDAICA by Subject. Under cups, for example, the NAMES appear on most kiddush cups.(unfortunately not photographed to take advantage online -Why?) This is a wonderful opportunity to restore family cultural objects and in these few cases, there may actually be HEIRS alive who can match those names to their ancestors. Too bad 1) They were kept so long 2) This is the only Jewish Museum attempting to restore items they received at war's end.

It was with a heavy heart that I looked at each illustrated page of cups, chanukiot, paintings and other objects that came from households whose members suffered such persecution. It's so different than other museums provenance research pages, where there is no assumption that the gaps in provenances automatically mean that they were looted-- In this case, each and every vessel holds a tragedy.

LIZ TAYLOR & THE US SUPREME COURT

"The Canadians who claim that Elizabeth Taylor has their great-grandmother's Vincent van Gogh painting are taking their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. A petition filed on Aug. 16 by Andrew Orkin, Mark Orkin and Sarah-Rose Adler states that View of the Asylum and Chapel at Saint-Remy, painted in 1889, belonged to their great-grandmother Margarethe Mauthner of Berlin, and was taken in the late 1930s under coercion (the family is Jewish). In May, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the California District Court rejected the Orkins' claim, finding that Taylor had acquired the work in good faith years after Mauthner willingly agreed to its sale. The Orkins are pressing on, citing a presumption in U.S. law that all property owned by Jews between 1933 and 1945 in Germany was deemed to have been confiscated by the Nazis, and that any art works from Germany in that period could be of dubious provenance."

This report, by Val Ross at the Globe and Mail, is missing a point. It leaves out the fact that Elizabeth Taylor was awarded her rights to the Van Gogh based ONLY on  statute of limitations. The court didn't find "that Taylor had acquired the work in good faith years after Mauthner willingly agreed to its sale"

It found for  Taylor because time ran out.

Too bad, too late to claim.

In other words, because the court did not give the HEIRS any relief from the Statute of Limitations in California law, they were deprived of their right to have their facts ring true at that hearing. What is absurd is that in the US, a Holocaust claim can be too late in California while in New York the same claim can be heard.

The real likelihood of coercion, the trail after the loss, all were irrelevant to the outcome once the statute of limitations was invoked. So the real loss is the rights of the family to pursue their property because they didn't "get wind" of the painting resurfacing in the 60's when Taylor's father  bought it at auction. Andrew Orkin was 11 years old around that time. Seems unfair that the HEIRS would be shut out.

The facts around the case itself are VERY compelling and if heard at the US Supreme Court, will show that provenance information that Taylor offered when she once tried to sell the painting in 1990, differ from the scholarly published dates that define Mrs. Mauthner's term of ownership. Taylor's 1990 brochure did not disclose that the painting was registered in the two latest (1939 and 1970) catalogues raisonnées as having been owned in Berlin by Mrs. Mauthner in 1937 or later. Instead, the brochure said only that Mauthner "kept the picture until at least 1928."

And the HEIRS have evidence that as late as 1939, the painting had been listed in an internationally published art catalogue as being part of their grandmother’s collection.

So let the truth of the facts of this case be argued, in a court which will recognize the three 1998 federal statutes intended to address the plight of Holocaust victims to facilitate the restitution of property taken from them during the Nazi era.