France returns Nazi-looted artwork to Jewish owners' heirs
February 15, 2013 - 16:06 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Seven paintings taken from their Jewish owners in
the 1930s are being returned to their surviving relatives as part of
an ongoing French effort to give back looted, stolen or appropriated
art, BBC News reported.
The works include four paintings that currently hang in the Louvre in
Paris. Six of the pieces were owned by Richard Neumann, an Austrian
Jew who sold off his collection at a fraction of its value in order to
leave France. The seventh was stolen in Prague from Josef Wiener, a
Jewish banker.
All seven were destined for display in an art gallery that Adolf
Hitler wanted to build in Linz, the Austrian city in which he grew up.
The gallery was to have been filled with artworks looted across Europe
by the Nazis from museums and private collections, many of them
Jewish.
The claims of the families involved were validated by the French
government in 2012 after years spent researching the works'
provenance.
The six works from the Neumann collection are to be restored to his
grandson Tom Selldorff, now 82 and a resident of the U.S.
From: Baghdasarian
February 15, 2013 - 16:06 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Seven paintings taken from their Jewish owners in
the 1930s are being returned to their surviving relatives as part of
an ongoing French effort to give back looted, stolen or appropriated
art, BBC News reported.
The works include four paintings that currently hang in the Louvre in
Paris. Six of the pieces were owned by Richard Neumann, an Austrian
Jew who sold off his collection at a fraction of its value in order to
leave France. The seventh was stolen in Prague from Josef Wiener, a
Jewish banker.
All seven were destined for display in an art gallery that Adolf
Hitler wanted to build in Linz, the Austrian city in which he grew up.
The gallery was to have been filled with artworks looted across Europe
by the Nazis from museums and private collections, many of them
Jewish.
The claims of the families involved were validated by the French
government in 2012 after years spent researching the works'
provenance.
The six works from the Neumann collection are to be restored to his
grandson Tom Selldorff, now 82 and a resident of the U.S.
From: Baghdasarian