Refusal to restore art work provokes anger
A PAINTING by the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) that was owned by a Jewish family before the Second World War is at the centre of a storm over the rightful ownership of Nazi loot.
Painting With Houses, which was painted in 1909, was sold to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam a few months after the Nazis invaded the Dutch city.
The descendants of Mr Emanuel Lewenstein, whose family were the owners at the time of the sale, say that this was conducted under duress and the family received only a “modest sum” for the picture.
A Dutch government committee, set up 16 years ago to investigate art transactions, has ruled that the painting should remain in the Amsterdam museum, having considered “the respective importance of the work to both parties” — the Stedelijk and Mr Lewenstein’s heirs — “and of the public art stock.”
The decision has been roundly criticised for breaching the principles relating to the fate of Nazi loot and the question of restoration of artworks to the families of their original owners.