El Greco looted by Nazis to be auctioned after return to heirs
THIS El Greco “masterpiece” was among several rare paintings returned to the heirs of Viennese art collectors whose collection was seized by Nazis.
Julius and Camilla Priester’s entire collection was looted between 1938 and 1944. Mr Priester, an industrialist who had commercial interests in the oil and the energy sector, made extensive but ultimately unsuccessful efforts to trace and recover their missing collection until his death in 1954.
The search was subsequently taken up by the couple’s heirs and three paintings including El Greco’s Portrait of a Gentleman, were eventually recovered. They are now due to be sold at auction.
Created in 1570, the portrait secured El Greco’s reputation as one of the great visionaries of Western art.
The piece, which is expected to fetch £800,000 to £1.2m, was identified by the Commission for Looted Art in Europe after it was acquired by a London art dealer in 2010. The painting was in its original frame, as confirmed by photographs of it in the dining room of the Priesters’ Viennese apartment before 1938.
The piece will be offered for sale alongside an “extremely rare” piece by Emmanuel de Witte, estimated to be worth between £500,000 and £800,000, and a “powerful” portrait by the anonymous “Master of Frankfurt”, worth between £40,000 and £60,000.
The paintings are due to be auctioned at Christie’s Old Masters Evening Sale on Dec 7.
Henry Pettifer, head of the Old Masters department at Christie’s, said: “We are honoured to be acting on behalf of the heirs to the Julius and Camilla Priester Collection in the sale of these three fantastic paintings.”