Britain’s Tate Gallery To Return Nazi-Looted Painting

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Britain’s Tate Gallery said it would return a Nazi-looted painting to the heirs of an art collector from Hungary.
The gallery announced on March 27 that it would return the 1824 painting “Beaching a Boat, Brighton” by John Constable. The artwork had been loaned to museums in the United States as late as 2006, The New York Times reported.
In a report, the British government panel settling claims on alleged Nazi-looted artworks said the painting should be returned to the anonymous heirs of Budapest art collector Baron Ferenc Hatvany. The Spoliation Advisory Panel criticized the museum for not attempting to establish the painting’s provenance.
The museum said it would recommend to its trustees at its next meeting in May that the painting be returned, according to The New York Times.
Hatvany, a Christian convert from Judaism, had his art stolen while he was in hiding during World War II.
A donor gave the painting to the museum in 1986.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
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 week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
