Van Gogh drawing once looted by Nazis to be sold at auction
La Mousmé was restituted in 1956 after being seized from Jewish banker during German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940; it is expected to be sold for $10 million
A Vincent Van Gogh piece of artwork looted by the Nazis from a Jewish collector during Germany’s invasion of the Netherlands will be up for auction Monday and is expected to be sold for $10 million, The Art Newspaper reported.
The masterpiece was handed back to the Jewish owner in the 1950s.
Kurt Hirschland and his wife managed to survive World War II by fleeing to the US, but their prized artwork was stolen during the Nazi occupation.
The drawing was recovered shortly after the war and hung at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
La Mousmé, the Japanese-inspired drawing of a girl from 1888, may be the most expensive item to be sold in the art collection “A Family Collection: Works on Paper, Van Gogh to Freud,” during a live-streamed auction set for March 1.
The portrait of the young girl was bought in 1920 by Kurt Hirschland, a German-Jewish banker. According to Christie’s Auction House, where the drawing is set to be sold, at some point during the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, it was confiscated.
Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum acquired La Mousmé in 1943, and in 1956 it was restituted by the museum to Kurt Hirschland. He died a year later and the Van Gogh work passed to his son Paul.
In 1983 the painting was bought from Paul by a London art dealer named Thomas Gibson for an undisclosed price, and he and his sons are now selling it in the Christie’s auction.
“It was always a special treat, giving me enjoyment every day,” Gibson told The Art Newspaper, adding that he was “really not too interested in the identity of the sitter — she was simply a very beautiful girl with piercing eyes.”
The Times of Israel Community.