Painting looted by Nazis going home
Published on: 07-Dec-2007
A long-lost 17th-century painting looted by the Nazis from a Montreal art dealer is on its way back home to Canada.The Max Stern Art Restitution Project has announced it has found a landscape by Jan Vos, depicting a group of travellers.
Christie's auction house helped in tracing the picture, which is at present on display in a London gallery.
Following his arrival in Canada after fleeing Nazi Germany in 1941, Mr Vos and his wife purchased the Dominion Gallery in Montreal and it developed into an important and central point for art collecting.
After his death in 1987, the Restitution Project was set up to recover works pillaged by the Nazis.
The painting was last seen in 1968 and then disappeared until it was brought into the Amsterdam branch of Christie's by a seller to be appraised.
Monica Dugot, from Christie's, told the Globe and Mail newspaper in Canada that when they began to look into its history "alarm bells went off".
She added: "When our specialists are cataloguing, they're trained to look for certain triggers.
"And this painting came up."
A total of four canvasses have been recovered from the Stern collection.
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