Germany Pays $1.28 Million To Heir Of Nazi-Looted ‘Judgment Of Paris’
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — A painting looted by the Nazis from a Jewish collector will continue to hang in a German museum after the German government and a private foundation paid the heirs of the former Jewish owner.
The German government announced Friday that $1.28 million had been transferred to an heir of Hans Hess in compensation for the painting, “The Judgment of Paris,” a 1913 work by the expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchener.
The Nazis stole the painting from the Hess collection, and it has been on display since 1973 at the Wilhelm-Hack Museum in Ludwigshafen.
The money came from the German federal and state governments and the Ernst von Siemens Foundation.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
