The museum team at the Liebermann Villa in Berlin examined the collection and identified one painting as Nazi-looted art.
It is a picture by Max Liebermann (1847-1935) from 1876, as the museum announced on Thursday. It is a copy of a “St. Adriansschützen” after a painting by the Dutchman Frans Hals (ca. 1582-1666).
The Villa am Wannsee deals with the history of its collection in a new exhibition. Around 150 plants have been examined since 2020. During the research, it turned out that an object in the collection of the Max Liebermann Society could clearly be described as Nazi-looted art.
The painting was therefore owned by his wife Martha after Liebermann’s death. In the course of the persecution by the National Socialists, she lost almost her entire fortune, the museum said. “In March 1943 she committed suicide and escaped the threat of deportation to the Theresienstadt concentration camp.”
Shortly thereafter, the Gestapo and the Chief Finance President of Berlin-Brandenburg confiscated and sold her property. “Whether the “St. Adriansschütze” was only then confiscated, or whether Martha Liebermann had to sell it beforehand because of her emergency, could not be finally clarified. In both cases, however, the painting can clearly be classified as Nazi-looted art.”
The picture was acquired in 2003 in the after sale of a Berlin auction, the museum said. After the research, an agreement has now been reached with the Liebermanns’ great-granddaughters.
According to the museum, they are waiving compensation or the return of the painting on condition that the fate of the Liebermann family, the provenance of the painting and “the extremely accommodating agreement” are pointed out. The research project was funded by the German Lost Art Foundation. (dpa)
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Source: Tagesspiegel
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