Russian claims rightful ownership of stolen Rubens painting

So, what was the outcome of the art and its owners?

Quinn
Quinn, the latest information I found follows:

The Telegraph (UK)
See also Museum Security Network http://www.museum-security.org/ww2/index.html

Still tough to find, most Nazi-looted art is outside the purview of a new Web site The recent unveiling of a new Web site listing artworks that may have been looted by the Nazis had at least two unintended consequences, experts say.

First, it underscored how much stolen art falls outside the purview of the new venture - the vast majority. Second, it reminded Holocaust survivors who are trying to reclaim stolen art how far the issue of property restitution has fallen from public consciousness and political discourse. Granted, virtually everyone involved in trying to retrieve looted art justly applauded the introduction of the Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal (www.nepip.org), launched last month by the American Association of Museums. For the first time, data on more than 8,000 works of possibly questionable provenance collected in 74 American art museums (including the Yale University Art Gallery and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art) can be researched on a single Web site. Chicago Tribune 12 October 03

The Springfield Museum sues Knoedler The museum returned to Italy a $3 million painting bought from the dealer. The work had been stolen during World War II.

Springfield, Massachusetts. The Springfield Library and Museum Association is suing the art dealer Knoedler for loss of a $3 million painting returned by the museum to Italy as war loot.

In June 2001, the Springfield Museum returned the oil painting "Spring sowing" by Jacopo da Ponte, known as Il Bassano, to Italy, after having been shown evidence that the work had disappeared during World War II from the Italian Embassy in Warsaw while on loan from the Uffizi Gallery. Knoedler had sold the painting to the museum in 1955 for $5,000.

Ronald D. Spencer, the attorney for Knoedler at the law firm Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP, New York, told The Art Newspaper: "There is no merit to the Springfield Museum claim and we are confident that the court will agree with us." The Art Newspaper October 03

Summit Could Return Looted Rubens The German and Russian leaders are expected to discuss the fate of a Rubens masterpiece looted during World War II when they meet this week.

The painting, Tarquin and Lucretia, is believed to have been stolen from Germany by a Soviet officer in 1945.

It has resurfaced after being offered for sale by a Moscow estate agent.

Its return is expected to be raised when German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold a two-day summit. BBC 8 October 03

Supreme Court to Hear Austria Appeal on Paintings Washington (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Tuesday it would decide whether the Austrian government and its national museum can be sued in this country by a Los Angeles woman seeking to recover six paintings she says the Nazis took from her uncle during World War II.

The justices agreed to hear an appeal by the European nation and its Austrian Gallery claiming U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction over the dispute.

The case stemmed from a lawsuit filed in 2000 in federal court in California by Maria Altmann alleging the wrongful taking of six Gustav Klimt paintings, valued at $135 million. The paintings are housed in the Austrian Gallery. Reuters 30 September 03

Russian Businessman Claims WWII Painting Moscow - Moscow - A Russian businessman said Monday that he is the legal owner of a painting by the 17th century Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens that was stolen from Germany in the chaos following World War II, and he has no plans to return it.

Vladimir Logvinenko said he is under no legal obligation to return the painting "Tarquinius and Lucretia," which was last publicly displayed in 1942 in the Sanssouci palace in Potsdam, Germany, the daily Izvestia reported.

"I am absolutely convinced that I am the rightful owner of this painting," he told the paper.

Logvinenko, who said he is in the real estate business, said the painting changed hands several times before he bought it in a legal transaction for an undisclosed price. The Miami Herald 29 September 03

Museums Launch Database to Find Nazi Stolen Art The true ownership of artwork stolen by the Nazis during World War II is one of the lingering mysteries of the Holocaust. For the survivors and relatives, the quest to reclaim lost art has been painful. For the museums where some of the world-class art turned up, it has been an embarrassment.

To help both sides, the American Association of Museums has organized an Internet registry of holdings in U.S. art museums that could have been appropriated by the Nazis. This centralized database, debuting today, is meant to give all parties access to the information, which a presidential commission asked the museums to organize.

"Our goal is to assure our many publics that American museums are committed to only having in their collections objects to which they have clear legal title, untainted by controversy or illegal, unjust appropriation," said Edward H. Able Jr., the president of the association. The Washington Post 8 September 03

Museum Sues Over Looted Art It Returned A local museum has filed a $3 million suit against a New York art gallery, saying the gallery misled it about the ownership of an Italian
Renaissance painting that it later had to return to Italy.

The Springfield museum purchased "Spring Sowing" by Jacopo la Ponte from M. Knoedler & Company Inc. for $5,000 in 1955. At the time, a bill of sale said the 1567 painting belonged to "a Swiss lady" whose family owned it "for a very long time."

But in 2000, the Italian government contacted the museum with records showing the painting had been stolen from the Italian embassy in Warsaw during World War II. The Springfield museum turned the painting over to the Ufizzi Gallery in Florence in 2001.

In a suit filed earlier this month, the museum charges Knoedler with fraud and deceit, The Republican of Springfield reported. The suit claims Knoedler said falsely that it had examined the painting's origins and had a clear title to it. Newsday.com By Associated Press 23 August 03

Looted art commission starts workA new German commission began work yesterday to help find "fair and just solutions" in ongoing disputes over the rightful ownership of art seized by Nazis, mostly from Jewish victims.

Germany's culture minister, Christina Weiss, said in a statement: "It is not that we have just discovered the issue. We have cleared up legal matters, but that does not end our ethical and moral responsibility."

Germany has paid around £3bn to survivors of Nazi slave camps, and £30bn to victims of the Holocaust, but the issue of stolen property has not been resolved.

The eight-member panel was set up after an agreement between the federal, state and local governments on its powers, but it can intervene only if both sides agree to let it act as an arbitrator. The Guardian 15 July 03


Sotheby's Sued Over Picasso Sotheby's Holdings, Inc. is being sued by a Swedish art collector who is demanding it return his Picasso painting. The auction house is keeping the painting because it claims it was confiscated by Nazis during World War II.

Janis Dzedins asked Sotheby's to sell his Picasso, ``Nature Morte au Verre,'' at an Impressionist and Modern Art sale in London in February, according to documents filed at the High Court in London by Dzedin's lawyers on June 5. Sotheby's refused to put the painting on sale after it determined that it had belonged to Alphonse Kann, a Jewish art dealer based in Paris whose collection of more than 2,200 artworks was seized by the Nazis during World War II, the auction house said in an e-mailed statement. ``In light of the conflicting claims of ownership, Sotheby's is not in a position to make a conclusive determination as to who has title to the painting,'' Sotheby's said in the statement.

In the past decade, museums and art dealers have examined collections to identify pieces looted by the Nazis. In 2000, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. returned a 17th century still life by Flemish artist Frans Snyders to the family of art collector Edgar Stern. It had been seized in Paris in 1941 by Hermann Goering, Commander-in-Chief of the Nazi Luftwaffe, the National Gallery's Web site said. It later turned up in the collection of Karl Haberstock, a Nazi art dealer.

Damages

Dzedins is seeking damages from Sotheby's, as well as the return of the painting. The auction house has told the collector it will keep the painting ``whilst this matter develops'', as it may be liable for penalties under French criminal law if it returns it. Sotheby's said in its statement that it plans to ask the court to rule on the ownership of the painting. Dzedins bought the Picasso for 418,000 pounds ($698,000) from Christies International Plc on April 3 1989, his court documents said. Christie's catalogue for the sale said the painting had been owned by Kann, according to the documents. A date hasn't been set for the court hearing. Dzedins' lawyer, Adrian Parkhouse, didn't immediately return phone calls after voicemail messages were left for him. Bloomberg 4 July 03

Sole Goudstikker heir recovers Bassano painting Marei von Saher, the sole living heir of Jacques Goudstikker, the foremost collector and dealer of Old Masters in pre-World War II Holland, announced today the restitution to her of a painting entitled "The Annunciation to the Shepherds" by the Studio of Jacopo Bassano.

The painting is part of an extensive collection of art that was owned by Goudstikker but looted by the Nazis shortly after they occupied the Netherlands in 1940. Jacques Goudstikker, together with his wife and only son, fled the Netherlands in May 1940 when the Nazi troops invaded. Goudstikker was forced to leave behind his business and 1,400 artworks, escaping only with his personal effects. Reich Marshall Hermann Goering subsequently took back to Germany artworks from the collection that he considered to be the best and the Bassano painting was among these.

As a result of Mrs. Von Saher's ongoing efforts to find and recover the lost Goudstikker artworks, the Bassano painting was located, through an Internet search, in a private collection. Representatives of the Goudstikker family initiated discussions with the collector, who has asked to remain anonymous. The family then sought the assistance of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, which played an instrumental role in effectuating an agreement pursuant to which the painting was restituted to Mrs. von Saher.

The Goudstikker family is delighted that information on the Internet is making it easier to identify lost Goudstikker paintings, wherever they might be held. Likewise, the family hopes that the commitment made by many public institutions around the world to publicize the history of the artworks in their collections on the Internet will lead to further identifications and returns of works from the Goudstikker Collection.

The painting will now be offered for sale in London at Christie's upcoming Old Master Pictures Auction on July 9. 3 July 03 New York

Looted Schiele landscape sells for £12mA landscape painting by Egon Schiele, looted by Nazi Germany sold at Sotheby's for a record £12m. The Guardian 24 June 03

Supreme Court stays art case The U.S. Supreme Court granted a temporary stay Monday of a recent decision by an appellate court that would have allowed a Nazi art theft case to go forward in a Los Angeles federal court.

The plaintiff, Maria Altmann, 87, of West Los Angeles, is suing Austria to reclaim six paintings by Gustav Klimt valued at $150 million that are now owned by the Austrian national museum.

Austria asked the Supreme Court for a stay last week after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on April 28 denied Austria's requested for reconsideration of a previous decision allowing the lawsuit to go to trial in Los Angeles. Austria maintains U.S. courts have no
jurisdiction in the case. The stay is in effect pending a decision by the Supreme Court to review the case. If it decides not to, the stay will be lifted. By Anne-Marie O'Connor Los Angeles Times 20 May 03

Stolen Art - Staking A ClaimThe Art Loss Register's Sarah Jackson on recovering art stolen by the Nazis: "In the past, provenance was important to establish value. Today, provenance is taking center stage because of liability. The law is changing slowly, but remorselessly, in favor of the victim. Once there is a known Holocaust survivor of a known work of art, it becomes virtually unsalable. For commercial art dealers, the choice is stark, because the buyers will choose an alternative that is not a tainted work of art." Los Angeles Times 19 May 03

Nazi Loot Suit Can Go AheadSuing a foreign government is a tricky proposition, with all sorts of legal hurdles to be cleared before a filing can even take place. So Maria Altmann has learned in her battle to get back six Gustav Klimt paintings looted from her family's collection by Nazis in World War II and currently in the possession of the Austrian government. This week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Altmann's suit can go forward in a U.S. court, and closed the door on any further stalling tactics by the Austrians. Austria has one appeal still available to it - the U.S. Supreme Court - but no decision has been made on whether such an appeal will be filed. Los Angeles Times 30 April 03

Stolen Schiele Painting To Be Sold An Egon Schiele painting that spent half a century in an museum in Austria before being returned to the heirs of the Jewish collectors from whom it was stolen by the Nazis is expected to bring in £7 million at Sotheby's in London in June.