The great-grandchildren of a Jewish couple whose property was plundered by the Nazis when they left on the eve of World War II have received a painting kept by Belgium’s finest art museum for 71 years.
The family’s Berlin-based law company approached the Musees royaux des Beaux-Arts (Royal Museums of Fine Arts) almost five years ago, and workmen hauled down the artwork and carried it off to be packed on Thursday following a short signing ceremony.
‘Altogether the family is looking for 30 artworks’, said lawyer Imke Gielen. ‘This is the first that has been really identified because unfortunately, we have no images of the missing paintings’.
Gustav and Emma Mayer, who left their Frankfurt home in 1938 to Brussels until their passage to Britain in August 1939, owned the artwork, which depicts pink flowers in a blue vase by German artist Lovis Corinth.
They were unable to take belongings, including the 30 artworks looted by the Nazis. The expressionist ‘Flowers’ by Corinth, painted in 1913, was among those stolen, with the Nazis condemning much of his art as ‘degenerate’.
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Belgian authorities were unable to determine who it belonged to after the war and gave it to the museum in 1951, where it has remained since. The museum, which first asked the public for information about the artwork in 2008 on its website, also opened two halls on Thursday dedicated to Nazi-looted art and paintings seized by Belgium during its colonial history.
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