Nazi-confiscated painting returned to heir of Jewish art historian
Source: Reuters
(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.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/05/us-usa-holocaust-art-idUSKBN0NQ1YH20150505
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during WWII like this 17th c. European oil painting, "Portrait of a Man" that belonged to esteemed Munich art historian August Liebmann Mayer. Mayer's daughter will receive the painting after many, many years. Her father was executed in Auschwitz on March 12, 1944 where he was deported to in 1943 after he was captured and his property raided in France, where he had fled from southern Germany in 1935, after the adoption of anti-semitic Nuremberg laws and harassment of Jews.
Mayer's remaining possessions in France like this painting and some of his belongings were confiscated by Nazi HERMANN GOERING, luxury afficionado, amateur art collector and thief. The notorious Nazi leader, Luftwaffe (air force) commander and second in line to Hitler, was convicted post WWII in 1946 of all four indictments including crimes of war and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trails. Goering was sentenced to death by hanging, but the night before the scheduled execution he committed suicide by ingesting cyanide poisoning in Oct., 1946.
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The returned stolen painting, "Portrait of a Man" is possibly from the workshop of, or in the style of Giovanni Battista MORONI (1520-1578) a well known north Italian painter of the late Renaissance period. The painting style and technique appear Italian and also of Spanish influence. August Liebmann Mayer was an art academic, scholar of Spanish Art and a curator. Mayer completed his Ph.D. dissertation on Spanish Baroque artist Ribera and travelled to Spain.
Scholars will continue to work on the origin and provenance of this masterful work of art. It will be interesting to see more treasures and artwork return to original relatives of Holocaust victims now that museums, collectors and governments around the world are increasingly being made to part with treasured property that was obtained unlawfully. Yet no matter what is returned now, the crimes that were committed, the millions of lives that were lost and and the price to humanity can never be recovered.
Popular efforts are also helping to recognize the Nazi atrocity of the Holocaust and mass theft committed 75 years ago:
Lynn H. Nichols 1995 book, "THE RAPE of EUROPA" was a success and made into a PBS film;
Robert Edsall's work and the recent movie, "MONUMENTS MEN" with George Clooney;
Actress Helen Mirren now in the film, "WOMAN IN GOLD" portraying Maria Altman whose beautiful Austrian Aunt Adele was painted by artist GUSTAV KLIMT in Austria during the Fin de Siecle (turn of the 19th century artistic and literary period in Europe).
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*BIO of German Art Historian AUGUST LIEBMANN MAYER (1885-1944)
https://dictionaryofarthistorians.org/mayera.htm
"PORTRAIT OF A MAN", Nazi stolen 17th century oil painting recently returned to Holocaust descendent in New York.
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Giovanni MORONI, Northern Italian late Renaissance painter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Battista_Moroni
*HERMANN GOERING, NAZI LEADER in detention for prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials, Germany.
