On March 14, 2023, a man walked past the entrance of the Kunsthalle Zurich.
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A Swiss museum said it will remove five works of art from public view on June 20 and work with the owners to investigate whether they were looted by the Nazis during World War II.
The paintings are on long-term loan to the Kunsthalle Zurich from the owner of the collection, the EG Bührle Foundation (or Bührle Foundation). Monet’s Garden in Giverny Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh old tower, The road to ascent Author: Paul Gauguin, Gustave Courbet Portrait of the sculptor Louis Joseph and George Henry Manuel Author: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
The museum said in a statement posted on its website on Friday that the Buehrle Foundation requested the artworks be removed while it evaluates their provenance. The re-examination is the result of updated best practices for handling Nazi-looted art released by the U.S. State Department in March. These expanded on the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi confiscated art developed in 1998.
The museum said: “The gallery welcomes this stance, but it is deeply regrettable for our visitors that five of the paintings have been removed from their rooms in the gallery by the current owners, the Fondation Bühler.” “The Bühler Foundation acted fully and correctly in accordance with its agreement with the city of Zurich and the provisions of the permanent loan agreement.”
“The Foundation is committed to following best practices and finding a fair and equitable solution with the legal heirs of the former owners of these works,” the Bühler Foundation said in a statement in German.
The foundation said it is also conducting a separate investigation into a sixth work currently on display at the Zurich Kunsthalle, a work by Edouard Manet Sultana.
“This job is not [the U.S. State Department’s] In a statement, the foundation said it was “best practice” due to the sales process but was classified as a case that must be considered individually.
The Emil Bührle Collection, managed by the Bührle Foundation, focuses on French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art and is a core part of Kunsthaus Zurich’s oeuvre.
The foundation’s loan of some 200 artworks “is permanent and can be terminated only with many years’ notice, first at the end of 2034,” according to the museum’s website.
So far, 25 countries, including Switzerland, have endorsed the U.S. State Department’s expanded guidelines for handling Nazi-confiscated art. The new agreement follows the 1998 Washington Conference Principles, which focused on providing compensation to the families of the original owners of treasures stolen or forcibly sold by the Nazis.
The March 2024 guidelines state that “compensation should be made to all legitimate beneficiaries and heirs in accordance with the usual succession laws of the country”. “All prewar owners identified through provenance research or their heirs should proactively seek return to the current owner.”
During the Holocaust, the Nazis stole hundreds of thousands of paintings, millions of books, and cultural and religious artifacts from their Jewish owners. Many items have still not been returned to their rightful owners.
Countries such as Russia, Romania, Spain, Denmark and Turkey have made little progress in trying to return looted art to their original owners or heirs, according to a recent report by the World Organization for the Restitution of Jews and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. A quarter of a century.
Although Switzerland remained neutral during World War II, it maintained strong economic ties with Nazi Germany and its allies.
“Confiscated art often went into private collections by Nazis and Germans, while some art was sold to buyers through neutral countries such as Switzerland to raise funds to purchase more art and purchase materials for the Nazi war machine,” said an article on Nazi looting The article identifies artworks from the National Archives’ Holocaust Records Preservation Project. “In addition, Switzerland provides a huge market for the sale of ‘degenerate art’.”
