“Ships in Distress on a Stormy Sea” by Jan Porcellis, which was recovered by the Max Stern Art Restitution Project. Image by Wikipedia

MONTREAL (JTA) — “Anti-restitution bias” is being blamed for the sudden decision by the mayor of Dusseldorf, Germany to cancel a planned exhibit about world-renowned Montreal art dealer Max Stern.

Due to open in February after more than three years of planning by Dusseldorf’s Stadtmuseum, the exhibit – titled “Max Stern: from Dusseldorf to Montreal” – also was slated to include a stop in Israel before finishing in Montreal.

The German city officials on Tuesday cited “current demands for information and restitution in Germany” as the reason for the exhibit’s abrupt cancellation.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“There are very influential people in Germany who don’t want to see art returned to Jews,” Concordia University professor Frank Chalk told the Montreal Gazette.

“There’s an element of anti-Semitism in this. But we never suspected the mayor [of Dusseldorf] could be vulnerable to this kind of pressure,” he said.

A native of Dusseldorf, Stern took over his late father’s art gallery there in 1934 until the Nazis made it illegal for Jews to sell art. During this period, the Nazis looted hundreds of valuable artworks from his gallery.

Stern soon left Germany and settled in Montreal, where he established the renowned Dominion Gallery.

Following his death in 1987, Concordia became the base for the Max Stern Art Restitution Project, which uses funds left by his estate to Montreal’s Concordia and McGill universities and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem to seek out and recover gallery artworks stolen by the Nazis.

To date, 16 have been recovered and returned to their rightful owners, with hundred still unaccounted for.

“We are hard-pressed to understand the justification for this decision,” restitution project director Clarence Epstein told The Canadian Jewish News. “It makes no sense.”

Instead of an exhibit, Dusseldorf plans to stage a symposium on Stern.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount