Germany’s advisory panel on Nazi-looted artwork has rejected a declare by the heirs of George Grosz for 2 of his work held within the assortment of the Bremen Kunsthalle, saying there isn’t any proof to assist the claimants’ view that they have been misplaced on account of persecution.
The panel mentioned there isn’t any doubt that though Grosz was not Jewish, he “suffered particular person persecution below the Nationwide Socialists as a result of his political opposition to Nationwide Socialism and on ideological grounds”.
Grosz emigrated from Germany to New York in mid-January 1933, shortly earlier than Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor. He obtained American citizenship in 1938.
In keeping with the panel, Grosz delivered the 2 work in query, Pompe Funèbre (1928) and Nonetheless Life with Ocarina, Fish and Shell (1931), to his former vendor Alfred Flechtheim instantly after he had produced them, on the market on fee.
Whereas the heirs argue that Flechtheim saved each works on consignment, there’s proof to counsel that Grosz transferred possession of Pompe Funèbre to Flechtheim earlier than the Nazis got here to energy, as a part of a settlement on a debt he owed. “The portray was not transferred as a consequence of Grosz’s persecution, however in response to the heavy debt burden that Grosz already had with Flechtheim earlier than 30 January, 1933,” the panel wrote.
Flechtheim, who was Jewish and a sufferer of Nazi persecution, was Grosz’s official gross sales agent in Germany from 1923 till 1931, when the vendor terminated the association. At the moment, Grosz owed Flechtheim a complete of greater than 16,000 Reichsmarks. He did not repay his money owed within the agreed installments, though Flechtheim’s gallery made repeated calls for for reimbursement.
Within the case of Nonetheless Life with Ocarina, Fish and Shell, its provenance from Might 1932 till 1960 stays unknown, the panel mentioned. “It’s as much as the claimants to show each their possession of the portray and their loss in the course of the interval of persecution,” the panel said.
Each works have been acquired by the Bremen Kunsthalle within the Nineteen Seventies.
