Museum settles with heirs of Jewish couple who sold 16th-century painting while fleeing the Nazis

A 16th century portrait made by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop will be auctioned off next year under an agreement between a Pennsylvania museum and the descendants of a Jewish couple who fled Nazi Germany during World War II.

The Allentown Art Museum has had Portrait of George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony in its collection since 1961, when it purchased the work from a New York gallery. The oil painting is said to have been made around 1534.

In 2022, the museum received a restitution claim for the painting from the descendants of Henry and Hertha Bromberg.

Henry Bromberg, judge at a magistrate’s court in Hamburg, had inherited the painting from his father. After Adolf Hitler came to power, the German-Jewish couple sold their collection and left Europe in 1938. The Brombergs arrived in the United States in 1939, first living in New Jersey and later settling in Pennsylvania.

The museum and descendants disagreed about the time and location of the sale: did the Brombergs sell the piece before or after they left Germany? But the parties were still able to reach a compromise, “rather than everyone standing their ground and going to court,” said Nicholas M. O’Donnell, the museum’s attorney. Associated pressMichael Rubinkam.

The painting will be sold in January 2025 and the proceeds will be split between the museum and the family in an undisclosed arrangement. The auction house has not released a valuation of the piece.

Max Weintraub, president and CEO of the museum, said in a statement that museum leaders took into account the “ethical dimensions” of the painting’s history.

“This work of art only came onto the market and eventually found its way to the museum because Henry Bromberg had to flee persecution by Nazi Germany,” he says. “That moral imperative forced us to take action. We hope that this voluntary action by the museum will inform and encourage similar institutions to find fair and equitable solutions.”

In the statement, the descendants – including the couple’s grandchildren and a close family friend – said they were “satisfied” with the “fair and just resolution.” In recent years they have recovered a number of other works from the Brombergs’ collection, but they are still looking for about 80 pieces.

In 2016, the French government returned a 16th century portrait attributed to Joos van Cleve or his son to the Brombergs. Two years later, French officials handed over three 16th century paintings by Joachim Patinir. According to the newspaper, the descendants have also concluded agreements for two other pieces that were in private collections New York Times“Graham Bowley.

Before the painting is auctioned early next year, the museum will display it alongside another piece owned by a German Jewish family before World War II. The installation will illustrate the “different trajectories of the artworks during and after the Nazi period,” the museum statement said. The exhibition, on view through October 20, will also explain the museum’s decision to return Cranach’s portrait to the Bromberg family.

Born in 1472, Cranach was a prolific German Renaissance painter, woodcut artist and muralist. He and his studio also painted numerous portraits of Martin Lutherthe German theologian who sparked the Protestant Reformation.

Christie’s specialists are now carrying out careful analysis of the artwork to confirm its attribution.

“This painting has been publicly known for decades, but we took this opportunity to conduct new research,” Marc Porter, chairman of Christie’s Americas, said in a statement to the AP. “It leads to the preliminary conclusion that this was painted by Cranach with the help of his studio.”

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