Painted in the early 17th century and stolen by the Nazis in World War II, “The Sermon on the Mount” is one of history’s art mysteries. Although not part of a collection of 1,400 works of art discovered in 2012 at the home of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of art collector Hildebrandt Gurlitt, who did some work for the Nazi regime, it has been under investigation for more than 20 years. appearance. To date, little is known, but the property was once owned by Adolf Hitler.
A painting by Franz Franken the Younger (painter born in Antwerp at the end of the 16th century), showing Christ speaking to a group against a cloudy sky, will be auctioned by Neumeister Auctions, based in Munich, Germany. , September 21. The investigation to find your first buyer is not over yet.
In recent years, research into the past of works stolen by the Nazis or disappeared during World War II has developed rapidly. Many theses and many studies have already been produced, and even organizations dedicated to finding their successors have sprung up. But this task faces many hurdles.
“In the context of the Holocaust it will be very difficult to find heirs”, Nicola Dahl, a researcher at the Kunstmuseum in Bern, Switzerland, agrees. The New York Times. “Some direct heirs do not survive and the legal heirs are distant relatives who are not aware of their ancestral property, scattered all over the world. It may even happen that heirs are not available.
As for the painting “Sermon on the Mount”, it is known to have been purchased by Hildebrand Gurlitt in 1943. Although the seller’s identity is unknown, he is known as “a middleman”. business”.
However, the painting did not land in Gurlitt’s home, located in German-occupied France. Instead, it was destined for the Fuhrermuseum, which Hitler wanted to build in Linz, Austria. However, at the end of the war, the work was stored in Munich along with 1,500 others on display in the museum, and was later stolen during the chaos of the last days of the war.
Although it was recovered a few weeks later, the painting only reappeared in public after appearing on a TV show in 2009. Fortunately, historian Stephen Kligen, who is dedicated to researching the works’ past, was one of the onlookers and alerted the police that it was one of those stolen from Hitler at the end of the war.
“We don’t know if it was stolen by the Nazis or one of Gurlitt’s businesses. The research is inconclusive, but they lead us to sources in France,” he told the same newspaper.
The German government still tried to reclaim ownership of the painting, but the court awarded it to the heir of the last family that bought it, a caretaker of a German soldier. Nine years ago, the 80-year-old woman decided to return to the auction house in Munich so that the work could be auctioned, saying that she “didn’t want to wait” for the end of the investigation: “She had already been transferred to an old people’s home, and she didn’t want her children to have this problem,” explained lawyer Patrick Rosenow. .
The auction officially takes place on September 21 and there is no word yet on how much the work is worth. Some reviews estimate that it will cost 120 thousand euros (approximately 130 thousand dollars, taking into account the current exchange rate), others point to half the price. The owner, on the other hand, preferred the work to be purchased by museums.