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German art gallery to return stolen drawings to Jewish heirs

STUTTGART, GERMANY (dpa)- The state art gallery in the southern German city Stuttgart will return two drawings in its collection to the heirs of the rightful Jewish owners, the museum said Tuesday.
The drawings by German artist Theodor Christoph Schuez and Dutch painter Samuel van Hoogstraten were once owned by the Jewish lawyer Michael Berolzheimer, who was forced to flee Nazi Germany to the US in 1938. He and his family left behind his art collection, which was auctioned off by the Nazis in 1938 and 1939 in Munich.

"The family Berolzheimer was in no way given access to the proceeds," Stuttgart's state gallery said.
One of the gallery's researchers had been able to trace back the artworks' origins, which unequivocally proved they had been "seized as a result of Nazi persecution."
One of the drawings by Schuez is a preliminary sketch of his painting "Sermon listeners outside the church," which is also owned by the museum.
The state gallery's director, Christiane Lange, said the museum hoped to repurchase this drawing, so that the two works can continue to be researched and presented together.
The other drawing is Hoogstraten's undated "Man with a torch."
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Tuesday, August 20th 2019

dpa