Pennsylvania museum to sell painting in settlement with heirs of Jewish family that fled the Nazis
A Pennsylvania museum has agreed to sell a 16th century portrait that once belonged to a Jewish family that was forced to part with it while fleeing Nazi Germany
A Pennsylvania museum has agreed to sell a 16th century portrait that once belonged to a Jewish family that was forced to part with it while fleeing Nazi Germany before World War II.
The Allentown Art Museum will auction “Portrait of George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony," settling a restitution claim by the heirs of the former owner, museum officials announced Monday. The museum had bought the painting, attributed to German Renaissance master Lucas Cranach the Elder and Workshop, from a New York gallery in 1961 and had displayed it ever since.
The portrait was owned by Henry Bromberg, a judge of the magistrate court in Hamburg, Germany, who had inherited a large collection of Old Master paintings from his businessman father. Bromberg and his wife, Hertha Bromberg, endured years of Nazi persecution before leaving Germany in 1938 and emigrating to the United States via Switzerland and France.
“While being persecuted and on the run from Nazi Germany, Henry and Hertha Bromberg had to part with their artworks by selling them through various art dealers, including the Cranach,” said their lawyer, Imke Gielen.
