Pratiksha Shome
Customers Conversing in a Tavern (1671) by Adriaen van Ostade, which was acquired by Hitler during World War II, has been agreed to by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, two benefactors, and the heirs of Jewish art dealers Paul Graupe and Arthur Goldschmidt. Customers Conversing in a Tavern was one of the Dutch and Flemish works Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, the new owners of the artwork, planned to donate to the MFA Boston in 2017. Senior provenance curator Victoria Reed recognised that the painting’s pedigree suggested a troubled history.
Reed was able to identify the true owners of the picture throughout the course of the following seven years of investigation, and a deal has since been reached. According to Boston.com, the Jewish heirs will receive an undisclosed monetary payment from both the Weatherbies and the institution, and the artwork will still belong to the Weatherbies and be included in the gift that was pledged to the MFA. Director of the MFA Matthew Teitelbaum stated in a statement, “We are extremely happy to achieve this conclusion with the Weatherbies and the heirs of Paul Graupe and Arthur Goldschmidt. The backstory of this artwork serves as a reminder that reparation for the Holocaust is still a work in progress and that reasonable and equitable solutions can be reached with willing partners.
The dealer Paul Graupe and his business partner Arthur Goldschmidt, who collaborated at the Paris-based gallery Paul Graupe et Cie in the early 1900s, had previously held the picture. Graupe was granted a special permit by the Nazi Reich Chamber of Culture to continue doing business because his extensive list of worldwide clients made his business particularly important while other Jewish galleries were being “Aryanized” by being transferred to non-Jewish owners. However, his unique licence was lost in 1937, forcing him and Goldschmidt to flee Nazi-occupied France while leaving the gallery and their collection behind. Before they left, they were able to sell Customers Conversing in a Tavern to Hitler’s agent Karl Haberstoc, who later sold it to Hans Posse, Hitler’s curator and art consultant. Hitler planned to have the artwork shown at his upcoming Führermuseum, which would be located in Linz.
Though it’s unknown if he also tried to recover work that he had unwittingly sold to the Nazis, Graupe returned to Paris in 1945 with the intention of returning Nazi-looted artwork. At the end of the war, Allied soldiers found Customers Conversing in a Tavern and transported it to France for reparation. Graupe doesn’t seem to have been aware of this, and in 1951, France placed the artwork up for sale when no one claimed it. (Grape became extremely ill around this time; he passed away in 1953.)
The picture was sold to the Weatherbies in 1992 after going through a number of ownership changes. According to the MFA, the Weatherbies were unaware of the painting’s Nazi origins. However, after learning about this background, they collaborated with the museum and the heirs to find a solution. The Weatherbies stated in a statement, “We are pleased that these long-standing ownership issues have been settled so amicably, and we are delighted to display Customers Conversing in a Tavern at the MFA so that it can be shared with the public.”
The MFA Boston has reached agreements over works that were stolen by the Nazis before. Early in 2022, the MFA sent the heirs of Ferenc Chorin, a Jewish collector whose Hungarian bank vault was raided by Nazis, to a View of Beverwijk (1646) by Salomon van Ruysdael. The MFA Boston put the artwork on their website after the museum started digitising its collection, which helped the Chorin heirs find the piece after years of searching.
Source: ARTnews
