| | Restituted
Objects Each object tells a story. Some are still missing,
some are restituted or resolved, and some have cases still pending. The circumstances
of looting and the efforts for recovery are just as fascinating as the famous
works of art themselves.
Henri Matisse, Odalisque, 1928
 Henri
Matisse is known for his vivid use of colour and wild experimentation as part
of the Fauves.
After World War I, Matisse, like many other French artists,
went through a period known as the ‘return to order,’ which focused on more traditional
methods and subjects. His ‘Olalisque’ paintings are characteristic of this period. One
of his more famous Odalisque paintings was seized in Paris from the collection
of Paul Rosenberg, a well known art dealer and collector. The painting was discovered
in the Seattle
Art Museum (SAM) by the Rosenberg family in 1997. Extensive research uncovered
that Odalisque was stolen in 1941 from a vault where Rosenberg had stored
162 paintings, and was then moved into storage at the Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris.
The following July, a German art dealer based in Paris apparently acquired Odalisque
in exchange for another painting. The painting did not
resurface until July 1954, when the New York art gallery Knoedler & Co. apparently
acquired it from Paris' Galerie Drouant-David. Later that year, the Knoedler gallery
sold Odalisque to the Seattle based Bloedel family, who bequeathed the
painting to SAM in 1991. The Rosenbergs sought the return
of the painting, and in 1999, SAM agreed that the evidence was conclusive and
gave the painting back to the Rosenberg family. SAM then sued Knoedler, contending
that the gallery breached warranties of title and misrepresented the painting’s
provenance. The case was settled in October 2000 when Knoedler agreed to transfer
one or more substantial works from its collection to SAM. | |
Gustav
Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I Ernst
Ludwig Kirchner, Street Scene, Berlin Henri
Matisse, Odalisque Edvard
Munch, Summer Night on the Beach Nicholas
de Nuefchatel, Portrait of Jan van Eversdyck Egon
Schiele, Autumn Sun (Herbstonne)
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