Tate Britain returns Nazi-looted painting to family of Jewish Belgian collector
The Tate Britain museum in London will return a 17th-century painting to the family of a Jewish Belgian art collector. The artwork was taken from his home during the German occupation in the Second World War. Its return was advised by the Spoliation Advisory Panel, the British government's restitution committee.
The committee says the 1654 artwork, ‘eneas and his Family Fleeing Burning Troy by English painter Henry Gibbs, was “looted as an act of racial persecution”. Samuel Hartveld's heirs and great-grandchildren will receive the work, which the collector left behind in Antwerp in May 1940 when he and his wife fled Belgium, the British government said on Saturday.
“This decision clearly acknowledges the awful Nazi persecution of Samuel Hartveld"
Hartveld survived the war but never saw his collection again. It is thought that most of the works are in galleries across Europe. Tate bought Gibbs' work from Galerie Jan de Maere in Brussels in 1994, after Antwerp resident René Van de Broek bought the collection and Hartveld's house for a “paltry sum”.
In May 2024, the Sonia Klein Trust, which bears the name of the foundation's founder, the daughter of Hartveld's widow, filed a claim. In a press release, the trustees say they are “deeply grateful” for the decision to return the work. “This decision clearly acknowledges the awful Nazi persecution of Samuel Hartveld,” they say.
Tate director Maria Balshaw said it was a “profound privilege to help reunite this work with its rightful heirs”. “Although the artwork’s provenance was extensively investigated when it was acquired in 1994, crucial facts concerning previous ownership of the painting were not known,” she said. “We now look forward to welcoming the family to Tate in the coming months and presenting the painting to them.”
Journalist's inquiry
The Sonia Klein Trust also thanked Geert Sels, a writer and journalist with Flemish newspaper De Standaard. Sels went looking for Nazi-looted art from Belgium in the book Kunst voor das Reich and uncovered the Hartveld case.
In a new article in De Standaard, Sels points out that another piece from Hartveld's collection will be auctioned in Vienna at the end of April. The Portrait of Bishop Antonius Triest by Antwerp painter Gaspar de Crayer at the Museum of Fine Arts of Ghent is also claimed to be Hartveld's. The city of Ghent has set up an ad hoc committee to rule on the painting as Belgium does not yet have a restitution committee or set guidelines.
#FlandersNewsService | The Tate Britain in London © PHOTO IMAGEBROKER
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