- The painting “Winter” by American impressionist Gari Melchers was returned to the heirs of the Mosse family, whose Berlin home was looted by Nazis when they fled the country in 1933.
- The Mosse family, who owned a newspaper in Berlin, had been harsh critics of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.
- After being taken by the Nazis, the painting ended up at the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, New York, in 1934, and it stayed there until staff learned it was stolen.
A painting stolen by Nazis from a Jewish family in 1933 was recently re-discovered and returned after 87 years.
“Winter,” which was painted in the 19th century by American impressionist Gari Melchers and features two young people skating, was part of an extensive art collection looted by Nazis when the Mosse family — owners of the newspaper “Berliner Tageblatt” and harsh critics of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power — were forced out of Berlin.
Heirs of the Mosse family have spent the last decade trying to recover lost pieces of their art collection. This week, “Winter” was returned to them after it was identified at a museum in upstate New York.
The FBI returned the painting to Mosse heirs on Thursday at a repatriation ceremony in Albany, New York.
“The Mosse family lost nearly everything because they were Jews. But they did not lose hope,” acting U.S Attorney for the Northern District of New York Antoinette Bacon said at a press conference, according to CNN. “While this certainly does not take away the pain that the Mosses endured, I hope it provides the family with some measure of justice.”
Read the article by Kelly McLaughlin in Business Insider Australia.