[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/GettyImages-1235763299.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tA C\u00e9zanne watercolor\u00a0recently shown\u00a0at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel may have been lost by its Jewish owner as a result of Nazi persecution, according to a provenance researcher working for the man\u2019s heir.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe work,\u00a0La Montagne Sainte Victoire<\/em> (ca. 1888), appeared in the Beyeler\u2019s recent C\u00e9zanne exhibition, which closed Monday. Its lender was identified in the catalogue only as a private collector.<\/p>\n \n\tResearcher Willi Korte told\u00a0the Art Newspaper\u00a0<\/em>that he uncovered documents in Basel\u2019s public archives showing that Gustav Schweitzer, a Jewish businessman who fled Berlin in 1935, loaned the watercolor to a 1936 exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel. Correspondence reviewed by Korte shows that Schweitzer later asked the museum\u2019s curator to keep the watercolor safe after the exhibition and help find a buyer for it. The curator arranged for the work to be restored at Schweitzer\u2019s expense, but after no sale materialized, the watercolor was sent back to Schweitzer\u2019s secretary in Paris in 1939. What happened to the work afterward remains unclear.<\/p>\n \n\tKorte argued that the circumstances suggest the work was either sold under duress after Schweitzer fled Germany or looted in Nazi-occupied territory. He urged the Fondation Beyeler not to simply return the work to its lender, saying the museum should help pursue what he called a \u201cfair and just solution.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Fondation Beyeler, according to\u00a0the Art Newspaper,\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0said it would inform the lender of the claim but return the watercolor, stating that Swiss museums do not have the legal authority to retain works without an appropriate legal basis. The museum also said it is not possible to research the provenance of loans to temporary exhibitions with the same depth as works in its permanent collection. It added that the watercolor was not listed on Germany\u2019s Lost Art Database.<\/p>\n \n\tSchweitzer died in Manila in 1939 after leaving Paris on a business trip. His secretary was deported from Paris in 1942 and killed at Auschwitz a week later. Schweitzer\u2019s wife fled to the United States in 1938, and their grandson, who lives in the US, is now the family\u2019s sole heir.<\/p>\n \n\tThe dispute arrives amid continued scrutiny of Nazi-era provenance research in Switzerland, particularly following debate around the\u00a0Emil B\u00fchrle Collection\u00a0at the Kunsthaus Zurich. A\u00a0recent report\u00a0on the collection examined a Van Gogh once owned by Schweitzer and concluded that a persecution-related loss could not be ruled out.<\/p>\n \n\tHistorian Georg Kreis, who has served on several panels examining Switzerland\u2019s role during the Nazi era, suggested the Fondation Beyeler could help mediate between Schweitzer\u2019s heir and the work\u2019s current owner. He told the Art Newspaper<\/em> that the watercolor would likely become difficult to sell under what he called a \u201cheavy cloud of suspicion,\u201d and said any agreement should acknowledge the possibility of a persecution-related loss and compensate Schweitzer\u2019s descendants accordingly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/cezanne-watercolor-fondation-beyeler-nazi-era-claim-basel-1234787573\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/GettyImages-1235763299.jpg?w=1024″] A C\u00e9zanne watercolor\u00a0recently shown\u00a0at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel may have been lost by its Jewish owner as a result of Nazi persecution, according to a provenance researcher working for the man\u2019s heir. The work,\u00a0La Montagne Sainte Victoire (ca. 1888), appeared in the Beyeler\u2019s recent C\u00e9zanne exhibition, which closed Monday. Its lender […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1959502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1959502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1959502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1959502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1959502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}