U.S. galleries probe art the Nazis may have stolen

March 10, 2000
Web posted at: 2:44 p.m. EST (1944 GMT)

In this story: Painting handled by Nazi art dealer Rembrandt said to have been in Hitler's collection RELATED STORIES, SITES

NEW YORK -- Several U.S. art galleries and museums are investigating certain works of art, including a Rembrandt, to determine whether the Nazis stole them from Holocaust victims.

The art being probed includes a 17th century Rembrandt at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a 17th century panel by Domenico Fetti at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and a 19th century Gustave Courbet painting at the Art Institute of Chicago.

A number of museums confirmed Thursday that an investigation is under way.

The museums are fulfilling a promise made in June 1998 to check their collections to see if they own any of an estimated 600,000 artworks the Nazis looted, in what has been called the greatest theft in art history.

The U.S. probe follows publication by British galleries and museums of a list of 350 paintings and drawings now hanging on gallery walls that may have been stolen during the Second World War.

The Los Angeles museum said on Wednesday that it was checking out a 15th century Madonna and Child, a tempura panel by an artist called the Master of the Bargello Judgment of Paris, because it went through one of the Nazis' most important dealers.

Painting handled by Nazi art dealer

The National Gallery of Art in Washington is investigating 'Still Life with Fruit and Game' by the 16th century Flemish painter Frans Synders, that was also handled by a notorious Nazi art dealer.

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) is asking museums to announce that they have suspect works instead of waiting for them to be claimed by Holocaust victims.

A few museums, including the Los Angeles gallery, have not decided whether to reveal problem works when they have finished their inquiries.

In early to mid-April the Chicago museum says it will publish on the Internet the paintings and sculptures that have gaps in their histories from 1933 to 1945.

Eileen Harakal, a museum spokeswoman, said such gaps were not uncommon and only meant more research was needed.

Rembrandt said to have been in Hitler's collection

The Rembrandt, called 'Portrait of a Man,' was part of Hitler's collection at Linz am Rhein from 1942 until about 1945, according to data from the Getty Provenance Index.

It was probably the same painting that a member of the Raman family exchanged, perhaps through a dealer, for exit visas for 25 Jews, according to the Getty data. The deal was arranged by Hermann Goering, Hitler's air minister.

It is not known if the painting was ever returned to the Raman family but Keith McKeown, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Museum, said, "I think it is something that needs further investigation."

Boston's museum is investigating the Fetti because it was handled by Gustav Rochlitz, who the Office of Strategic Services described as the "chief" participant in exchanges of paintings confiscated (by the Nazis).

Dawn Griffin, a spokeswoman for the Boston museum, said it had "active concerns" about 15 to 20 of its 1,500 European works of art.

The museum was not ready to identify them, she added. "Right now we feel we want to do more work on them."

The Chicago museum, which has the Courbet called Rock at Hautpierre, said on Wednesday it was in touch with Greta Silberberg, who lives in England, because of recent publicity about the collection of her father-in-law Max Silberberg.

He and his wife died in a concentration camp.

The Courbet was sold in Berlin at the Galerie Paul Graupe on March 23, 1935, to an unknown purchaser, the museum said in a statement.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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