Nazi-Looted Renoir Returned To Jewish Art Dealer’s Last Heir
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — A Renoir painting that the Nazis stole from a Paris bank vault was returned to the heir of its owner.
On Wednesday, U.S. authorities returned the 1919 work “Deux Femmes Dans Un Jardin” to Sylvie Sulitzer of France, the last remaining heir of her grandfather Alfred Weinberger, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. The painting by the famed Impressionist is worth at least $300,000.
Although Sulitzer knew her grandfather, she had no idea about the missing Renoir until a German law firm, specialists in recovering art looted by the Nazis from Jewish families, contacted her in the early 2010s, Agence France-Presse reported.
“I’m very thankful to be able to show my beloved family wherever they are that after all they’ve been through, there is justice,” Sulitzer said.
Her grandfather was a prominent art collector in prewar Paris.
Four other Renoirs and a Delacroix, which her grandfather also owned, have yet to be recovered, Sulitzer told AFP.
The Nazis stole the art in December 1941 from the bank vault where Weinberger stored his collection when he fled Paris at the outset of World War II.
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.
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.
