An artwork by the German landscape painter Carl Blechen that was confiscated by the Nazis in 1942 has been returned to the heirs of its rightful owners.
Valley of Mills near Amalfi (c.1830) was bought by Dr. D.H. Goldschmidt in Berlin during the early 20th century and inherited by his sons, Eugen, a chemist, and Arthur, a publisher. The brothers both committed suicide after the 1938 November pogroms, also known as Kristallnacht, and their art collection was bequeathed to their nephew Edgar Moor. However, he had emigrated to South Africa so the artworks remained in the Berlin apartment he shared with his uncles until they were seized by the Gestapo in 1942.
Adolf Hitler’s “Special Commission Linz” purchased the painting after it was seized by the Nazis. Hitler reportedly planned to exhibit the work in his unrealized Fürhermuseum in his hometown of Linz, Austria.
Thanks to Germany’s Federal Art Administration, which delves into the provenance of the state’s cultural assets to determine if they were looted by the Nazis, Blechen’s painting has been restituted.
“The return of the artwork is of great importance for the family and its history,” said a representative for Moor’s heir. “My client is very grateful for the accompanying recognition of the fact that this art theft was the result of incitement and persecution of the brothers Dr. Arthur Goldschmidt and Dr. Eugen Goldschmidt.”
After World War II in 1952, Valley of Mills near Amalfi was taken into the car of Germany’s federal government and become state property in 1960. It was most recently loaned to the Prince Pückler Museum Foundation – Park and Castle Branitz in Cottbus.
“The investigation into the Nazi theft of cultural property is an important part of remembering those persecuted by the Nazi regime,” Claudia Roth, Germany’s culture minister, said in a press statement. “With the return of the painting by Carl Blechen, which was confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution, the fates of Arthur and Eugen Goldschmidt as well as Edgar Moor are now becoming a little more visible.”
