Germany Returns Two Nazi-Confiscated Old Masters to the Heirs of a Renowned Jewish Art Collector

Germany has returned two late
medieval panels to the heirs of a famous Jewish art
collector. The religious paintings, which were
in Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie
(Old Master Gallery), originally formed part of
the remarkable art collection of the Jewish businessman
Harry Fuld Senior. They are the latest pieces of Nazi-looted art to
have been successfully recovered by his heirs, although hundreds of
items remain missing.

The panels by the Italian artist
Giovanni di Paolo depict two scenes of the life of St.
Clare of Assisi. The Clothing of St. Clare By St.
Francis, and St. Clare Rescuing the
Shipwrecked. Both date from around 1455.

The Prussian Cultural Heritage
Foundation organized the restitution. “I am glad that
the provenance of the two predella panels, which are probably the
most important works belonging to the collection of Harry Fuld
Senior, could be clarified, and that they could now be returned to
the descendants,” the foundation’s head, Hermann Parzinger, said in
a statement.

The foundation has previously overseen the restitution of a late
medieval alabaster relief in 2009, and two fabric fragments in 2012
to Fuld’s heirs. In an agreement with his descendants, the
alabaster relief can still be seen at the Bode Museum in
Berlin.

The art collector Harry Fuld Senior owned a Frankfurt-based
company that produced and sold telephones. After Fuld’s death
in 1932, his wife Lucie
Mayer-Fuld and his two sons inherited shares in the
company, but they were expropriated by the Nazi regime. In his
will, Fuld stated that his estate should not be distributed to his
family until 1950, but his wishes were never carried out as his
wife, children, and the executors of the will were Jewish.

After the family lost their company, Mayer-Fuld fled to France,
and his two sons—Harry Fuld Junior and Peter Fuld—escaped to
England. In 1940 the two panels were bought by what was then called
the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, and entered the national collection.
They were sold by the art dealer Carl Bümming, who was acting as an
intermediary for an unknown party. While it is unclear who Bümming
worked for, the foundation accepted that the works were confiscated
during the Nazi era.

More than 500 items in Germany’s lost-art database are listed as
belonging to Mayer-Fuld. These include 13 paintings, 18 sculptures,
and more than 482 craft and folk artworks, as well as two library
objects, and two graphic objects.

Last month, two Louis XVI vases, which are estimated to be worth
around $120,000, were returned to Mayer
Fuld’s heirs. Christie’s New York alerted the FBI’s art crime
team after they were consigned for sale and the Fuld name raised
alarm bells.

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