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The painting, called "Portrait of a Man," was recovered in
part by the New York Department of Financial Services’ Holocaust
Claims Processing Office, which has helped to return $171
million in assets to relatives of holocaust victims.
"While the terrible damage caused by Nazi persecution can never
be repaired, we hope that the recovery of this painting will
deliver at least some small measure of justice," department
Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky said at a ceremony at the Museum
of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan.
"Portrait of a Man," which features a seated bearded man wearing
a red and black ensemble, was seized during a Nazi raid of the
home of August Liebmann Mayer, Lawsky's office said.
Facing growing anti-Semitism in his country, Mayer resigned from
his jobs at the University of Munich and the Bavarian State
Paintings Collection. He was arrested in March 1933, and some of
his property was seized. Two years later, he fled to France.
But after the Germans occupied Paris, the Nazis raided his home
there and took his art collection before deporting him to
Auschwitz, where he was executed on March 12, 1944, Lawsky's
office said. Some of the belongings were confiscated by German
air force commander Hermann Goering.
Some pieces from Mayer's art collection were returned to France
after the war, including "Portrait of a Man," which was last
displayed at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
With the aid of the French government, and attorneys for Mayer's
daughter, his lone surviving relative, the painting was
returned, Lawsky's office said.
The daughter, who was not identified, released a statement on
Tuesday.
"It is never too late to recognize the fate of those we have
lost during the years of Nazi terror," it said. "My late father
was a most distinguished art historian and a great art lover and
I am glad that after more than seventy years, justice is finally
being served."
(Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld)
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