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The oil painting "Geschwister" shows Milda Frieda Heckel with her younger brother
Photo: Erich Heckel estate / Staatliche Kunsthalle / akg-images
An oil painting by the expressionist Erich Heckel (1883-1970) is to be returned from the state of Baden-Württemberg to the heirs of the previous Jewish owner from the point of view of the advisory commission on Nazi looted property.
It was to be assumed that the Nazi regime was deprived of the result of persecution, a statement said.
The decision of the committee set up by the federal, state and municipal umbrella organizations was unanimous.
The Ministry of Art announced that the steps required for restitution would be initiated immediately.
This is the picture "Geschwister" painted by Heckel in 1913, which is currently part of the holdings of the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe.
According to the commission, the oil painting was owned by the historian Max Fischer until 1934.
Because of his Jewish descent, he was persecuted individually and collectively by the National Socialists.
Fischer left Germany in 1935 and emigrated to the USA a year later.
The painting was in the basement of Heckel's house in Berlin in 1944.
He himself donated it to the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe in 1967.
"It could not be clarified when and under what conditions Erich Heckel came into possession of the painting or even received ownership of it between January 1934 and January 1944," said the commission, which is organizationally connected to the German Center for the Loss of Cultural Property in Magdeburg .
It can therefore be assumed that there was a withdrawal due to Nazi persecution.
Hence the decision of the commission to »recommend the restitution of the› siblings ‹to the heirs of Max Fischer«.
The Fischer Collection, created by Max Fischer's parents, was one of the most important German private collections of Expressionist art.
The heirs have now announced that they will donate the painting to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, where works from the Ludwig and Rosy Fischer Collection have been on view since 2009.
Icon: The mirror
sak / dpa