BERLIN – A task force set up by the German government to determine the ownership history of more than 1,500 art works discovered in 2012 has found that only five were wrongfully taken from Jews, drawing criticism from Jewish groups. German tax inspectors discovered the art collection, which included works by Matisse and Picasso, during…
Yagna Yass-Alston, a Polish doctoral student, was on a fellowship in Israel last year when she visited the Museum of Art Ein Harod in the Jezreel Valley. She wanted to look at two paintings there for her dissertation research on Jewish art collectors in Krakow. Looking into the museum’s inventory files, a reference to a…
In a letter emblazoned with the insignia of the U.S. House of Representatives, 29 members of Congress reprimanded the German state of Bavaria for neglecting its historical responsibility to victims of the Nazis. “The Free State of Bavaria has yet to fully honor its pledge regarding restitution or compensation for Holocaust-related confiscations of property, including…
A German art museum said it has found 18 works in its collection that may have been stolen from Jews by the Nazis. Some of the sculptures and drawings in the Kunsthalle Mannheim are by artists Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Max Slevogt and Edgar Degas, according to reports. The museum has registered the pieces with the German…
A U.S. federal judge declined to order the return from Spain of a painting that was sold under duress by a Jewish owner to a Nazi art appraiser. The June 4 ruling by Judge John F. Walter of Los Angeles’ Central District Court of California stated that Spanish law applied in the case, and that…
For the most ambitious of his five films as director, George Clooney assembled a top-shelf cast of fellow actors to play art experts tasked with retrieving artistic treasure stolen by the Germans during World War Two. There is one person, though, who is not a Hollywood A-lister, not listed in the credits and who may…
There is hardly a white spot visible on Harry Ettlinger’s calendar. As we tour the 88-year-old Ettlinger’s immaculate apartment, he ignores the ringing phone; someone from Sony Pictures leaves a voicemail: “I will be emailing you today or tomorrow your confirmation number for your limousine pickup.” He pulls press clippings and pictures out of folders,…
French government-owned museums will return three paintings that they came to possess after the Nazis stole them from Jews during the Holocaust, France’s minister for culture said. Minister Aurelie Filippetti identified the three paintings as “Paysage Montagneux” by the Dutch 17th century painter Joos de Momper; a painting of the Madonna and Child, and another…
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