BERLIN, December 10 /PRNewswire/ --
-- Painting Formerly in the Collection of German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer Unveiled
-- http://maxsternproject.concordia.ca/
-- http://mediarelations.concordia.ca/
More than 70 years after Düsseldorf art dealer, Max Stern, was forced to liquidate his art collection as a result of Nazi persecution, two more of his paintings were finally recovered by his heirs. The Max Stern Estate benefits three major universities (Concordia, McGill University/Montreal, and Hebrew University/Jerusalem) who are committed to recovering Stern's approximately 400 lost artworks. An event marking their return took place on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at the Berlin offices of the University of Toronto.
One of the paintings, which was publicly presented for the first time in almost forty years, is the Dutch Old Master work Flight from Egypt by the Circle of Jan Wellens de Cock (1480-1527). It was lost by Max Stern after he had been banned from his profession in 1935. What happened to the painting soon after is not known, but it subsequently became part of the collection of German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. The return of this artwork was facilitated by Christie's auction house and the New York State Banking Department's Holocaust Claims Processing Office.
The Estate was able to determine the provenance of the de Cock thanks to recent research undertaken at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) at The Hague. As a further result of this effort, Stern's ownership of more than forty additional Old Master paintings by artists such as Brueghel, Van Dyck, Ruisdael and Teniers was also established.
The second work returned to the Stern Estate is Girl from the Sabine Mountains by famed German court painter Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805 -1873). Stern's ownership of this work was confirmed following a long and precedent-setting, international legal battle that will have an impact on many other art restitution claims. The family of the German-American defendant, Baroness Maria-Louise Bissonnette, had been in possession of the painting since her step-father, a Nazi party member and SA-Stormtrooper, purchased it at Max Stern's so-called "Jew sale" at the Lempertz auction house in Cologne in 1937.
Many of the paintings from the entire Stern collection remain in circulation in German museums, corporate offices and private collections.
Tanya Churchmuch, Senior Media Relations Advisor, Concordia University, Tel: +1-514-848-2424 ext. 2518, Cell: +1-514-518-3336, tanya.churchmuch@concordia.ca
Tanya Churchmuch, Senior Media Relations Advisor, Concordia University, Tel: +1-514-848-2424 ext. 2518, Cell: +1-514-518-3336, tanya.churchmuch@concordia.ca
