Nazi-confiscated painting returned to heir of Jewish art historian
By Laila Kearney
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 17th century painting taken by Nazis from a prominent German Jewish art historian has been returned to the owner's daughter, New York state officials said on Tuesday.
The painting, called "Portrait of a Man," was recovered in part by the New York Department of Financial Services’ Holocaust Claims Processing Office, which has helped to return $171 million in assets to relatives of holocaust victims.
"While the terrible damage caused by Nazi persecution can never be repaired, we hope that the recovery of this painting will deliver at least some small measure of justice," department Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky said at a ceremony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan.
Separately, five paintings missing since World War Two were turned over to a German diplomat at a U.S. State Department ceremony in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday for their return to their original owners in Germany.
The five paintings were recovered by the Dallas-based Monuments Men Foundation as a result of tips received by the non-profit organisation after last year's release of the movie about art historians in the war called "The Monuments Men."
All five were in the possession of heirs of Americans who served in Germany during the war.
The New York painting, "Portrait of a Man," features a seated bearded man dressed in red and black. It was seized during a Nazi raid of the home of August Liebmann Mayer, Lawsky's office said.
Facing anti-Semitism in his country, Mayer resigned from his jobs at the University of Munich and the Bavarian State Paintings Collection. He was arrested in March 1933, and some of his property was seized. Two years later, he fled to France.
After the Germans occupied Paris, the Nazis raided his home there and took his art collection before deporting him to Auschwitz, where he was executed on March 12, 1944, Lawsky's office said.
Some pieces from Mayer's collection were returned to France after the war, including "Portrait of a Man," which was last displayed at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
With the aid of the French government, and attorneys for Mayer's daughter, his lone surviving relative, the painting was returned.
"It is never too late to recognise the fate of those we have lost during the years of Nazi terror," his daughter, who was not identified, said in a statement.
"I am glad that after more than 70 years, justice is finally being served."
(Additional reporting by Marice Richter in Dallas and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Eric Walsh)
