A German museum has returned a 15th century Renaissance painting to the estate of a Jewish art dealer who was forced to sell it under duress in 1935.
The painting, “Virgin and Child,†is the tenth work of art to be returned to the estate of Max Stern, since the dealer’s beneficiaries - Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and Concordia and McGill universities in Montreal- launched a restitution project in his name in 2002.
Prohibited by the German government from buying and selling art because he was Jewish, Mr. Stern was forced to sell hundreds of artworks for a pittance in order to buy exit permits for his family. Mr. Stern, who died in 1987, ultimately settled in Montreal, where he became a prominent art dealer.
New York’s Holocaust Claims Processing Office, which began working with the Stern project in 2005, helped gather and present the documentation that proved the laim to the museum, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.
The painting was turned over in a ceremony at the Canadian Embassy in Berlin on Tuesday.
