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Nazi Thievery

Jewish families continue to seek artworks stolen during WWII.

Shari S. Cohen

Special to the Jewish News

A

s the Nazis occupied Europe and
implemented Hitler's Final Solution
to eliminate European Jewry, they
also systematically stole or coerced sales of
artwork from Jewish collectors and gallery
owners throughout the continent.
"The volume of theft was staggering,"
said Howard N. Spiegler, speaker at the
Mary Einstein Shapero
Memorial Lecture. More
than 425 people attended
the annual lecture Oct.
7 at Temple Beth El in
Bloomfield Township. "It
was the greatest displace-
ment of art in human
.111 ►
history — approximately
Howard
one-fifth of the artwork
Spiegler
then in Europe.
Spiegler is co-chair of the International Art
Law Group of New York's Herrick Feinstein
law firm.
As the German army overtook European
countries, it was under orders from top Nazi
leaders to seize valuable artworks, many
designated for a museum that Hitler planned
or for his top associate, Gen. Hermann
Goerring, "who fancied himself an art con-
noisseur:' Spiegler said.
The Nazis favored representational art and
Old Masters; they classified modern works
by such artists as Picasso, Shiele and Klimt
as "degenerate:' These works were displayed
in a traveling exhibition that ridiculed them
and many were sold for hard currency,
Spiegler said.
Long before the extent of Nazi theft of
artwork from churches, museums and indi-
vidual collectors was known, the U.S. and
British military had established a policy to
preserve European art and cultural artifacts.
A special unit, the Monuments Men, was

1 1

View of the Oude Maas from Dordrecht, painted by Jan Josefsz van Goyen in 1651, was one of the paintings of the Goudstikker
collection reclaimed by the family and exhibited at the Jewish Museum in 2009.

created to identify and safeguard such items
from damage and theft. Gen. Eisenhower
insisted that artworks be returned to their
countries of origin rather than taken as spoils
of war, Spiegler said; but huge numbers were
never recovered by the Allies.
After the war, European nations estab-
lished restitution commissions, but they
"often turned a cold eye on claims" from the
artworks' original owners. Instead, he said,
famous paintings became the property of
these countries and were exhibited in public
museums or in embassies.
Victims of the Holocaust struggled to
rebuild their lives during the post-war years,

and many didn't want to think about that
horrific time. As a result, families who had
lost art collections often didn't pursue restitu-
tion, Spiegler explained.

Quest For Restitution

However, during the 1990s, the quest for
restitution was helped greatly by the Internet,
where artworks with missing provenance
could be posted and researched. Also, as
the Iron Curtain fell, previously unavailable
archives were opened to researchers. Also,
the next generation "was not burdened by
survival and readily asked questions" about
their family's artwork, Spiegler explained.

DIA First American Museum
To Return Nazi-Looted Art

Seine at Asnieres by Claude Monet

24 November 6 • 2014

JN

The Detroit Institute of Arts was the first American
museum to return a painting stolen by the Nazis during
World War II. The painting, Seine at Asnieres by Claude
Monet, which was considered a major acquisition in
1948, was purchased through a New York dealer, funded
by the Ralph Harmon Booth Fund.
It was then donated to the DIA, but the museum
was subsequently alerted by the New York branch of
a French art gallery that the painting had been stolen
from its Jewish owners. The French government traced

A number of books were written about the
Nazis' art thefts and a controversy over the
famous Portrait of Wally publicized the issue.
When this famous painting by Egon
Schiele was loaned by the Leopold Museum
of Vienna for exhibit at the Museum of
Modern Art in New York City, Lea Bondi
Jaray, a pre-war Jewish gallery owner who
had owned the painting in her private col-
lection, filed a claim to regain it. Eventually,
an out-of-court cash settlement was reached,
along with an agreement that the painting's
true provenance be publicly acknowledged.
Also during the 1990s, the Clinton
administration convened a conference of

the painting to the Jewish Halphen family, whose collec-
tion was looted by the Nazis in Paris during 1941. The
DIA transferred the painting to the French government
in 1950.
Since 2001, the DIA has had four claims regarding art-
work potentially stolen by the Nazis. Three claims have
been rejected. However, in 2002, the museum reached a
settlement with five heirs of the pre-World War II owner
of A Man-of-War and Other Ships off the Dutch Coast by
Ludolf Backhuysen.
The DIA had researched the painting on the Art Loss
Register and learned that it had been stolen from Jewish
owners. The heirs and the DIA reached a financial set-
tlement for the painting, which remains at the DIA.

