Hedwig Stern (art collector)
Hedwig Stern (née Eichengrün) was a German Jewish art collector (1898-1983)
Life
Hedwig Stern, born Eichengrün in 1898, was the daughter of a textile company owner. She married Fritz Stern (d. 1955).
Throughout her life, she searched for a missing painting, but despite her "serious and diligent efforts," as noted in a report by Petropoulos submitted in a lawsuit, she was never able to locate it. Stern passed away in 1983.[1]
Art collection
Stern's art collection included works by van Gogh[2], Richard Seewald[3], Max Unold[4] and other artworks which have ended up in museums.
Nazi persecution
When Hitler came to power in Germany, Stern was persecuted due to her Jewish heritage. As mandated by the Nazi's September 1935 Nuremberg Laws, Hedwig Stern was stripped of her German citizenship. In December , she and her husband Fritz fled Munich, leaving behind the art collection.[5] The Sterns successfully escaped Germany in December 1936, arriving in New York in early January 1937. Afterward, they relocated to Berkeley, then Pasadena .[1]
One of the painting left behin was Olive Picking (1889) by Vincent van Gogh. Hedwig's attorney, Kurt Mosbacher, was instructed to liquidate her assets, and Olive Picking was listed among the items for disposal. [5]
Claims for restitution
In 2023, her heirs filed a lawsuit against the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in Athens and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for the return of Olive Picking. [6][7][8][9][1]
Stern's heirs have filed search requests for art looted during the Nazi era on the German Lost Art Foundation database.[10]
References
- ^ a b c "California woman claims museum secretly sold her grandma's Nazi-stolen van Gogh". Stars and Stripes. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
- ^ "Olivenernte | Lost Art-Datenbank". www.lostart.de. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
- ^ "Stillleben | Lost Art-Datenbank". www.lostart.de. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
- ^ "Galizisches Mädchen (Galizischer Judenknabe) | Lost Art-Datenbank". www.lostart.de. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
- ^ a b Bregman, Alexandra. "The Van Gogh Wars | Part 3: The Olive Picking (1889) Belonging To Holocaust Escapees Ends Up In Greek Shipping Magnate Museum". Forbes. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
- ^ "Was Van Gogh's olive grove landscape another Nazi-era 'forced sale'?". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. 2023-01-27. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
Nine heirs of the Munich-born collector Hedwig Stern are suing the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in Athens and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for the return of Olive Picking. Stern bought the painting in around 1935 and lost it the following year after she fled Nazi Germany. It was later acquired by the Met and subsequently deaccessioned, before it was acquired by the Greek shipping tycoon Basil Goulandris (d. 1994) and his wife Elise (d. 2000).
- ^ "Did the Metropolitan Museum cover up its acquisition of a Nazi-looted Van Gogh? A new lawsuit alleges so". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. 2022-12-20. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
The heirs of a Jewish collector whose art was seized by the Nazis as she fled Germany in 1936 are suing the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Athens-based Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation to secure the return of (or compensation for) a Vincent van Gogh painting. The lawsuit, filed last week in the US District Court for Northern California in Oakland, lists as plaintiffs nine heirs of Hedwig Stern, a collector who fled Nazi Germany and eventually settled in Berkeley. The lawsuit alleges that the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation continues to hold the painting despite its provenance problems, and that the Met acquired it in 1956 and then "secretly sold" it in 1972 to avoid facing restitution claims.
- ^ Canaday, John (1972-09-30). "Metropolitan Sells Two Modern Masterpieces in an Unusual Move". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
- ^ York, Will Pavia, New (2022-12-21). "Jewish art collector's heirs sue Met museum over 'secret sale' of Nazi-looted Van Gogh". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Stern, Hedwig geb. Eichengrün und Sally Eichengrün | Lost Art-Datenbank". www.lostart.de. Retrieved 2025-02-04.