looted art

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NY Authorities Seize Statue at Cleveland Museum

Ancient statue was allegedly looted from archaeological site in Turkey

(Newser) - The star attraction of the Cleveland Museum of Art's ancient Roman collection is now in the custody of New York authorities. The New York District Attorney's office says a 6-foot-4 headless bronze statue believed to represent emperor Marcus Aurelius has been "seized in place" under a state...

Restored Ancient Cup Is Amazing, but a Little Fishy

Investigators seized it from the Met, are skeptical about its miraculous trail of shards

(Newser) - In one sense, the story told about an ancient Greek drinking cup known as a kylix in the New York Times is one of an amazing feat of historical puzzle-solving. In 1978, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City bought shards of pottery from a Swiss dealer, a...

'A Spoil of War': Egyptologists Demand Return of Rosetta Stone

British Museum, which refused its return in the past, says there's no official request now

(Newser) - Egyptian archaeologists and thousands of supporters are demanding the return of one of the British Museum's most prized artifacts, along with other Egyptian treasures, saying their continued presence in the heart of the British Empire "supports past colonial endeavors of cultural violence." An online petition launched last...

London Museum to Return Looted Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

It's 'very clear that these objects were acquired through force,' Horniman says

(Newser) - Update: With cultural institutions under pressure to repatriate artifacts taken during the colonial era, a museum in London agreed Sunday to return Benin Bronzes looted in the late 19th century from what is now Nigeria. The Horniman Museum and Gardens said a Nigerian commission asked earlier this year that it...

Saga of Looted Gilgamesh Tablet Comes to an End

3,500-year-old tablet bearing portion of Epic of Gilgamesh now in Baghdad

(Newser) - A small clay tablet dating back 3,500 years and bearing a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh that was looted from an Iraqi museum 30 years ago was formally returned to Iraq on Tuesday, following a September repatriation ceremony in Washington, DC. The AP reports the $1.7 million...

Billionaire Gets 'Unprecedented Lifetime Ban' on Antiquities

Michael Steinhardt will face no charges over $70M in stolen items

(Newser) - A New York billionaire will face no criminal charges after surrendering 180 antiquities worth $70 million, which authorities say were stolen from 11 countries. The items had been looted from Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Turkey, and trafficked by 12 criminal smuggling networks before...

Seized by the Nazis, It Could Now Break Auction Records

Meissen porcelain collection goes up for auction next month

(Newser) - A collection of Meissen porcelain once seized by Nazis for Adolf Hitler himself is going up for auction next month. The Jewish owners of the 18th-century pieces, German lawyer Franz Oppenheimer and his Austrian wife Margarethe, fled Germany for Austria in 1936, then escaped to Budapest a little over a...

A Nazi-Era Wrong Is About to Be Righted

France is returning Klimt painting to family that originally owned it

(Newser) - Nora Stiasny, an Austrian Jew, inherited Gustav Klimt's Rosiers sous les Arbres from her uncle, but was forced by the Nazis to sell it in 1938 for vastly less than what it was worth. She was ultimately deported to a concentration camp in Poland, where she died in 1942....

Researcher: Museum Won't Give Up Art Nazis Plundered

Sibylle Ehringhaus says Germany's Georg Schaefer Museum used her as a 'fig leaf' for 'appearances'

(Newser) - Heirs of Jewish collectors who say their work was stolen by the Nazis have claimed about 20 pieces of art housed in the Georg Schaefer Museum in Schweinfurt, Germany, and there had been a provenance researcher there whose job was to verify those claims. But Sibylle Ehringhaus chose not to...

How a Nazi-Looted Painting Ended Up in a NY Museum
Upstate NY Museum 'Upset' to
Discover Painting's Origin
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 27, 2019 2:43 PM CDT

Upstate NY Museum 'Upset' to Discover Painting's Origin

A Nazi-looted painting stolen from Jewish family somehow ended up at the Arkell Museum

(Newser) - A painting stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish family in the year Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany has been found hiding in plain sight: on the wall of a museum in upstate New York. US industrialist Bartlett Arkell bought the painting—Winter by American artist Gari Melchers—...

Nazis Stole It in 1941. Painting Is Finally Going Home

Jan van der Heyden work was stolen from Austrian couple nearly 80 years ago

(Newser) - In 1941, the Gestapo stole more than 160 paintings from a Jewish couple, who'd fled Nazi-annexed Austria. Hitler's photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, nabbed "View of a Dutch Square" by Jan van der Heyden, but he didn't have long to enjoy it. Retrieved by the Allies after the...

Just End for Painting Stolen by Nazis From Bank Vault

Granddaughter of late Jewish art collector thinks it's 'lovely'

(Newser) - "Lovely colors. Lovely painting," was Sylvie Sulitzer's reaction upon first seeing Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Two Women in a Garden," a 1919 painting owned by her grandfather and stolen by Nazis. One of 13 paintings Jewish art collector and dealer Alfred Weinberger stored in a Paris...

Buyer Wants $800K After Learning of Painting's Messy Past

Alain Dreyfus says Christie's should have figured out it had been stolen by the Nazis

(Newser) - The buyer of a painting reportedly stolen by Nazis wants some $800,000 from Christie's auction house, which he claims "didn't do enough work" to clear the provenance of Alfred Sisley's "First Day of Spring in Moret." French art dealer Alain Dreyfus says he...

Painting Stolen by Nazis Goes Home, With US Help

It was found near Philadelphia

(Newser) - A 19th century painting that was looted by the Nazis during World War II and recovered by the FBI in Pennsylvania has returned home to Poland, reports the AP . It was publicly unveiled Wednesday by members of both the American and Polish governments in a ceremony that marked one of...

Monuments Men Rescued the Art. Nazis Got It Back

It was 'restitution to the Nazis rather than to their victims'

(Newser) - The Monuments Men are famous for rescuing art looted from Jewish families during World War II—but it turns out that many pieces never made it back to their original owners. That's because when the famed group turned over the artwork to the Bavarian state after the war, the...

US Judge: Museum Can Keep Nazi-Seized Art

He rules against Jewish woman's heirs

(Newser) - A federal judge in California has dealt a blow to a Jewish family's prolonged battle to regain ownership of a painting now on display in a museum in Spain that was seized from a woman fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939. The judge found that under Spanish law, the Thyssen-Bornemisza...

Man Thinks He Knows Where Nazis Hid the 'Amber Room'

But Karl-Heinz Kleine needs a new drill to continue his search of Wuppertal

(Newser) - The fabulous Amber Room looted by the Nazis from a Russian palace in 1941 may be the world's "most valuable piece of lost art," according to Reuters —and a 68-year-old man in western Germany thinks he knows where it is. Karl-Heinz Kleine and friends from his...

Dutch Find 139 Artworks Likely Looted by Nazis

Netherlands completes major review of all museum collections

(Newser) - Dutch museums have found 139 artworks that may have been looted during the Nazi era, they announced today. Among the works: One of the country's top tourist draws, Henri Matisse's 1921 "Odalisque" painting of a half-nude reclining woman at Amsterdam's Stedelijk museum, along with 68 more...

Sotheby's Halts Sale of Looted Nigerian Mask

Protests, complaints cause withdrawal of $7M piece

(Newser) - Sotheby's has canceled the planned auction of a 16th-century ivory mask from West Africa after online protesters and the Nigerian government complained that the precious artifact had been looted from the country by British troops, reports the Independent . The mask, believed to have been worn by the king of Benin...

Nazi Records Help Victims Get Stolen Art Back

New database contains details on some 20K pieces

(Newser) - Some 20,000 works of art looted by the Nazis are one step closer to being returned to their rightful owners. Today marks the launch of an online database of art taken in Germany-occupied France and Belgium between 1940 and 1944, allowing survivors, their relatives, art collectors and museums to...

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