Family battles for £17m Kandinsky looted by Nazis
MEMBERS of a Dutch body advising on Nazi looted art have been accused of bias in the case of a £17million Kandinsky painting in Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum.
Heirs of the Lewenstein family are challenging the Netherlands restitution committee’s ruling that the museum is not obliged to return the 1909 masterpiece Painting with Houses.
The family claim four of the seven members of the committee have connections with the museum in a “flagrant violation” of legal principles.
The submission is part of a court case pitting Americans Robert Lewenstein and Francesca Davis and Amsterdammer Elsa Guidotti against the city council and its modern art museum.
The painting was sold on Oct 9, 1940, five months after the Netherlands were occupied. The restitution committee itself recommends all sales of art by Jewish people at this time “be treated as forced sales, unless there is express evidence to the contrary”.
However, in 2018, the committee ruled this sale was “caused to an extent by the deteriorating financial circumstance” of the Lewenstein family.
Prof Axel Hagedorn, a partner at the family’s law firm, told The Sunday Telegraph: “It is difficult to understand why the Stedelijk retains looted art and chooses to continue to retain it. The museum is wrongly hiding behind the opinion of the restitutions committee, to which there are major objections.”
James Palmer, founder of the Mondex Corporation, which also represents the family, claims the body ignored evidence of the family company’s financial success in 1939 and 1940 – looking at losses made in prior years instead.
A letter written by Robert Lewenstein states: “For me, the feelings aren’t just about stealing, and retribution, but also my view of the world and feelings of the heart. Our family … was deeply affected by the Nazi takeover in 1940.”
A restitutions committee spokesman said it has not seen two academic reports filed in the new evidence yet.
“The Restitutions Committee has established that none of the members has or has had any ties to the museum that could give rise to doubts about their independence,” it said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for Amsterdam city added that it – and its Stedelijk Museum – awaited the court’s decision.
Last month, Ingrid van Engelshoven, the culture minister, commissioned a review of the legal and moral aspects of the restitution committee’s current policy on looted art.