Heirs to buy back Nazi-confiscated art 18/04/2008 00:00

The heirs of Jewish art collector are entitled to buy a Jan Toorop painting from Dutch museum.

18 April 2008

AMSTERDAM - The heirs of Jewish art collector Ernst Flersheim are legally entitled to buy back a painting by Dutch painter Jan Toorop (1858-1928) confiscated from Flersheim in 1938 by the Nazis, a Dutch art restitution committee announced on Thursday.

The committee, which investigates and makes recommendations in matters of restitution of art stolen or confiscated during World War II, said the current owner, the Zeeland Museum Fund, had bought the painting in 1981 for EUR 68,181 (150,000 guilders).

According to the committee, the fund did not know at the time the painting had been confiscated in 1938.

Therefore it ruled that although the fund was obligated to return the painting to its legal heirs, the family has to pay the fund EUR 121,500 for its return.

The painting was one of many pieces of art belonging to German Jewish collector Flersheim from Frankfurt. He fled Germany following anti-Jewish measures in the late 1930s. The Nazis confiscated his entire art collection.

The sum of EUR 121,500 was calculated using the Dutch consumer price index between 1981, when the fund acquired the painting legally, and on Thursday.

[dpa / Expatica]