Dispute over Matisse stolen by Nazis
The theft, under the direction of Hermann Goering, has sparked the latest dispute over art stolen from Jews during the war.
The painting at the centre of the row, Matisse’s 1937 Blue Dress In A Yellow Armchair, depicts a woman sitting in a living room.
It has been among the highlights of the Henie Onstad Art Centre near Oslo since the museum was established in 1968 through a donation by wealthy art collector Niels Onstad and his wife, Olympic figure-skating champion Sonja Henie.
Museum director Tone Hansen said it had been unaware the painting was stolen by the Nazis until it was notified last year by the London-based Art Loss Register, which tracks lost and stolen paintings.
She said Onstad bought the painting in “good faith” from the Galerie Henri Benezit in Paris in 1950. The Benezit gallery “has no record of collaborating with the Nazis, as many galleries did”, she said.
Although the war ended almost 70 years ago, disputes over looted art have become increasingly common in recent years, in part because many records were lost, while an international accord on returning such art was only struck in 1998.
But the case of the Matisse is somewhat different in that its former owner, Paul Rosenberg, was one of the most prominent art dealers in Paris before the war, which he survived by fleeing to New York.
Art Loss Register director Chris Marinello said the records in this case are unusually clear.
Art Registry documents show he purchased Blue Dress directly from the painter, having noted the purchase in 1937
The lawyer representing the museum, Kyre Eggen, said it was significant Onstad did not know where the painting came from.
Under Norwegian law, if a person has had an item in good faith for more than 10 years, that person becomes the rightful owner, he said.
That argument runs against the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, to which Norway is a party.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
