Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

NY Times Offers Details On Restituted Works German Officials Returned to Nazi Families

July 18, 2016 by Marion Maneker

Degenerate Art Exhibition 1938

The New York Times now has more details on recent revelations that West German governments allowed Nazi families to claim art they had stolen or received as stolen goods during the Nazi era as their own and receive the works years after the end of World War II.

It turns out, the archives show, that hundreds of works were actually sold back at discounted prices in the 1950s and the 1960s to the very Nazis who had taken possession of them, including the widow of Hermann Goering, a senior aide to Hitler who pillaged art to amass a collection of more than a thousand works.

This murky chapter of history came to light because of Mr. Graykowski’s search for some 160 missing works from the Krause collection. In 2009, Mr. Graykowski, a Virginia lawyer, enlisted the help of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, a London-based nonprofit that researched the archives for him and made key discoveries.

Anne Webber, a founder of the commission, said her researchers concluded that the resale of looted art to Nazi-tied families had hardly been isolated. “They called them a ‘return sale,’” she said. “Why were they returned to them rather than the family from whom they were looted? Nobody knew.”

The return sales to Nazi families — first reported in late June by the Munich daily Süddeutsche Zeitung — are also causing political recriminations. This week, a Bavarian state Parliament committee demanded an accounting from government officials about the extent of the system to resell art to Nazi families and a tally of how many looted works remain in government possession that could be returned to the proper heirs.

Nazi Art Loot Returned … to Nazis  (The New York Times)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • The Basquiat CartelThe Basquiat Cartel
  • The Velvet Hammer of RestitutionThe Velvet Hammer of Restitution
  • Swann’s Big Breakout African American SaleSwann’s Big Breakout African American Sale
  • London’s Asia Week Auctions Make $92mLondon’s Asia Week Auctions Make $92m
  • Lost Magritte ‘Discovered’ at MoMA…and Moderna Museet…and…Lost Magritte ‘Discovered’ at MoMA…and Moderna Museet…and…
  • Man Cherishes Gauguin and Bonnard Works for 40 Years Without Knowing Who Painted ThemMan Cherishes Gauguin and Bonnard Works for 40 Years Without Knowing Who Painted Them

Filed Under: General

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • David Hockney's $20m Pacific Coast Highway & Santa Monica
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Phillips to Showcase Helen Frankenthaler at Southampton Outpost
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Re-discovered John Constable Painting at Sotheby's in December
  • Christie's Announces $70m Picasso Self Portrait
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • What Constitutes a Collection?
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor