Mondrian’s Estate Sues Philadelphia Museum Over Alleged Nazi-Stolen Painting
Image via Wikimedia Commons
Heirs of Piet Mondrian have alleged that a nearly century-old canvas by the famed Dutch artist in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) was stolen by the Nazis.
They’ve now filed a lawsuit for the painting, titled Composition With Blue (1926), which is believed to be worth over US$100 million, to be returned.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the work has been on view at the museum since 1952, when it was donated by the collector A E Gallatin. He was said to have purchased the piece 13 years before from New York’s Buchholz Gallery, which has since been uncovered as one of the places the Nazis disposed of stolen art.
Nazis had looted the piece from a museum in Hanover Germany in 1937, in a broader attempt to destroy the country’s collection of modern art. It was then displayed in the infamous Degenerate Art exhibition later that year, which aimed to “educate” the public that modernist art such as abstraction were “the result of genetic inferiority and society’s moral decline,” as per the Museum of Modern Art.
Mondrian’s estate launched a complaint in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Please on Friday, December 10, seeking to reclaim the painting.
“This great work by Mondrian was seized by the Nazis. We are greatly disappointed that we have been compelled to take legal action to enforce our rights,” said Madalena Holtzman, one of the estate’s trustees.
In response, the museum told Artnet News the accusation was “meritless,” saying that both Mondrian and his heir had been aware of the painting’s whereabouts after the war and hadn’t sought to have it returned. It said that while the museum “fully supports restoring artwork looted by the Nazi regime to its rightful owners,” and has “done so in the past,” it wasn’t the case in this instance.
Instead, the PMA feels “the private trust that is suing the museum has no legitimate claim” to the painting. Gallatin had been a personal friend of Mondrian’s, and the museum believes the artist had been fully aware when the collector donated the work to be displayed in the museum.
“We have no reason now to question Mondrian’s decisions or those of his good friend and immediate heir, Harry Holtzman, who for another 43 years after Mondrian’s death was fully aware that the Philadelphia Museum of Art owned and displayed the painting and never made a claim,” a PMA spokesperson said.
[via Artnet News, cover image via Wikimedia Commons]
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