BERLIN — A Berlin museum Monday says it has formally restituted a 15th century religious wooden sculpture to the heirs of former owners, a Jewish couple who fled the Nazi regime.
The heirs in turn agree to sell back the medieval artifact, “Three Angels with the Christ Child,” at an undisclosed price to the Bode Museum, which will keep it in its collection.
The agreement means “righting an injustice,” says the head of Berlin’s public museums, Michael Eissenhauer, who thanks the heirs for the “grand gesture” that will keep the priceless piece on public display.
The delicately carved 25 centimeter (10 inch) tall sculpture from around 1430 shows three floating angels in the clouds holding a cloth on which lies the sleeping infant Jesus.
It once belonged to the private collection of Ernst Saulmann, a Jewish industrialist, and his wife Agathe, an architect’s daughter who was one of the few female pilots of her era.
— AFP
One of the heirs of former owners, a Jewish couple who fled the Nazi regime, Felix de Marez Oyens (L) and his wife Theodora de Marez Oyens stand in front of a 15th century religious wooden sculpture during its restitution on June 25, 2018 in Berlin. (AFP Photo/Bernd von Jutrczenka)
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