The call was launched on X (formerly Twitter) on April 8. A section of the FBI in Chicago specializing in artistic crime is looking for the owner of a work by Jacobus Albertus Michael Jacobs, better known as Jacobs Jacobs. It was allegedly stolen during the Second World War in Luxembourg, reports local media Le Quotidien.
The painting, representing ships on the sea, could have been stolen by a soldier who participated in the Battle of the Bulge (December 16, 1944-January 25, 1945), in the small Luxembourg town of Echternach. The soldier then brought him back to the United States, according to the FBI. Anyone with information on the rightful owners of this painting can email seascapetips@fbi.gov.
Paintings by the 19th-century romantic-style Belgian painter Jacobs Jacobs can sell for several thousand euros at auction. But the work found in the United States appears to be in poor condition, with numerous folds in places.
An “almost unsaleable” painting
The auctioneer Alexandre Chateau-Ducos specifies to the Belgian daily La Libre that in this specific case, “the painting is almost unsaleable” since “the restoration work of the work would greatly exceed its value in a standard condition”. In good condition, it could have sold for between 2,500 and 3,000 euros, estimates the expert.
The work of the “Art Crime team” has already made it possible to trace the journey of 20,000 stolen works of art. This section of the FBI was created 20 years ago after the looting of the Iraqi National Museum. Its goal is to return artistic objects stolen to their owners, particularly during conflicts.
Many descendants of victims of the Second World War are fighting for the restitution of works of art stolen during this period.
In September 2023, for example, three works by the Austrian artist Egon Schiele suspected of being “illegally” held were seized by American justice in museums in the United States. Earlier in March, a museum at the British University of Cambridge returned to the descendants of its owner a painting by Gustave Courbet looted in 1941 by the Nazis in Paris.