“Finally clear the way”
Roth criticizes Bavaria in the dispute over the Picasso painting
03/27/2023, 5:48 p.m
Is the painting “Madame Soler” by Picasso looted by the National Socialists? The heirs of the Jewish art collector Mendelssohn-Bartholdy have been asking for the painting back for years. Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth is now putting pressure on.
In the dispute over the return of the painting “Madame Soler” by Pablo Picasso to the heirs of the Jewish art collector Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth from the Green Party has criticized the Free State of Bavaria. “I expressly call on the Bavarian state government to finally clear the way for the Bavarian State Painting Collections to agree to an appeal to the Advisory Commission. This is really overdue,” Roth told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
The commission was created by the federal, state and local governments. It mediates in disputes about the return of cultural property that was confiscated as a result of persecution by the National Socialists. In order for it to take action, however, both sides must agree. Critics such as the Jewish Claims Conference have therefore long been calling for a unilateral right of appeal for descendants of persecuted and robbed owners.
State painting collections refuse
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s heirs had already demanded the restitution of Picasso’s “Madame Soler” in 2009. This request has been carefully checked, the State Painting Collections inform. According to his statement, the New York art dealer Justin K. Thannhauser acquired the painting in August 1935 at the latest. The provenance research came to the conclusion that this sale had no causal connection with the persecution of the family. According to Thannhauser, the State Painting Collections bought it in 1964.