The AP reports that the Dutch have completed a review of their museums and found 139 works that it suspects might not have clear title and 61 works that were taken from 20 individuals:
The major review of all museum collections in the country found art that had either dubious or definitely suspect origins.
“These objects are either thought or known to have been looted, confiscated or sold under duress,” said Siebe Weide, director of the Netherlands Museums Association. He said returning them is “both a moral obligation and one that we have taken upon ourselves.”
The review also listed the names of 20 people whom the museums said definitely had 61 pieces of art taken from them. The museums said they were getting in contact with or seeking their heirs, including the heirs of Jewish art dealer Albert Stern, the deceased owner of the Matisse.
The museum purchased the painting from Lieuwe Bangma family in 1941, but Stern was its owner before the war and the Bangma family is known to have given shelter to his granddaughter during the war. […]
Among the objects found were 69 paintings, including French painter Henri Matisse’s 1921 “Odalisque”painting of a half-nude reclining woman at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk museum, one of the country’s top tourist draws.
Other paintings included works by old Dutch masters such as Jacob Gerkitsz Cuyp, Impressionist Isaac Israels and modernists Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. Other objects uncovered in the investigation included drawings, sculptures, antiquities and Jewish ceremonial objects.
Dutch Museums Identify 139 Likely Nazi Looted Works (APNews)
