News / Arts
Council can keep Nazi auction Renoir painting
Bristol can keep its Renoir painting sold at a Nazi-organised “Jew auction” after a panel ruled it should not be returned to its original owners.
The Coast of Cagnes, a 1910 oil painting of Cagnes-sur-Mer in south-eastern France, hangs in the French collection on the second floor of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.
The painting fell into the city council’s hands after it was left to the Friends of Bristol Art Gallery in 1999 by Leopold Moller, an Austrian Jew who fled Hamburg from the Gestapo.
But the painting was subject of a Spoliation Advisory Panel review after a claim that it was unlawfully taken from its original owners, Jewish art dealers Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer, by the Nazis and sold at auction.
The Margraf group, which made the claim for compensation for the painting, was owned by the Oppenheimers before they were banned from being directors in 1933, eventually losing ownership in 1937.
However, the panel ruled on Wednesday that it believes the artwork was sold because of a bank debt rather than any Nazi persecution the Oppenheimers were subjected to.
The panel said: “In all the circumstances, the panel finds that the moral strength of Margraf’s claim is insufficient to justify a recommendation that the painting be transferred or that an ex-gratia payment be made.”
A Bristol City Council spokesman said: “We have received the report of the Spoliation Advisory Panel and respect their recommendation.”
The painting, which measures only 20cm by 31cm, depicts a view of the bay at Cagnes-sur-Mer, where Renoir lived from 1907 until his death in 1919.
The Spoliation Advisory Panel advises the UK government on claims for cultural property looted during the Nazi era.
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