UK’s Tate Britain gallery to return Nazi-looted painting to heirs of Jewish collector

The Tate Britain gallery is set to reunite the great-grandchildren of a Belgian Jewish art collector with a painting looted from his home by the Nazis, officials say.

“Aeneas and his Family Fleeing Burning Troy” was stolen from the home of Samuel Hartveld after he fled Antwerp with his wife in May 1940.

The artwork by English painter Henry Gibbs was one of hundreds of thousands the Nazis plundered from Jewish families during World War II.

Their restitution has been a slow process, often involving legal battles and complex international searches.

The return of the 1654 oil painting will mark the latest triumph for a special panel set up by the UK government to investigate such works that have ended up in Britain’s public collections.

The Spoliation Advisory Panel ruled the “Aeneas” painting was “looted as an act of racial persecution” and has arranged for it to be returned to Hartveld’s heirs in the coming months, the UK government’s culture department says.

A handover date has not yet been confirmed but Hartveld’s family says they are “deeply grateful.”

“This decision clearly acknowledges the awful Nazi persecution of Samuel Hartveld and that the ‘clearly looted’ painting belonged to Mr Hartveld, a Jewish Belgian art collector and dealer,” the trust representing Hartveld’s heirs and relatives says.

The painting depicts the Trojan hero Aeneas trying to rescue his family from the burning city.

It was produced in the wake of the English Civil War, when scenes of devastation and families being split up would have been familiar.

The Tate collection bought the work from the Galerie Jan de Maere in Brussels in 1994, and the trust established by Hartveld’s heirs launched a claim in May 2024.

“It is a profound privilege to help reunite this work with its rightful heirs,” says Tate director Maria Balshaw.

“We now look forward to welcoming the family to Tate in the coming months and presenting the painting to them.”

Hartveld survived World War II but never recovered the art collection he had to leave behind.