In Rome, museums are not usually known for their online violence, so when one of the world's great art institutions uses provocative digital hashtags like #Nazis and #Wehrmacht to demand that Germany return stolen paintings, it is bound to attract attention.
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, is calling on the German government to intervene in a controversy — a Baroque painting taken by German soldiers 75 years ago, the "Vase of Flowers" painted by the 18th-century Dutch florist Jan van Huysum. Once in the collection of the Uffizi Museum, it was stolen during World War II and is currently owned by a private German collector. Both the Uffizi Gallery and the Italian authorities want the collector to return the paintings.
The Uffizi Gallery tweeted on Jan. 2 that its director, Eike Schmidt, had a long talk about "2019, a long-term appeal to Germany." At the same time, the museum also posted a video on its website. In it, we can see curator Schmidt standing solemnly in the Putitti Hall of the Pitti Palace, with black-and-white photographs of Jan van Huysum pasted on the walls. The painting was stolen during World War II.
On the black-and-white "photo painting", there is bold red font with the word "stolen" in Italian, English and German, and the title posted on the front indicates that the photograph of the work was taken by a German soldier and is now in the collection of a German family. The German government did not respond to this. Under German law, stolen property cannot be prosecuted after more than 30 years.
Black-and-white photograph of a still life painting hanging on the Uffizi Gallery
Schmidt said the painting has been the subject of decades of negotiations between Italian authorities and German family agents. He said he did not know the identity of the German family, but that they were "likely" related to the soldiers who photographed the painting during the war.
In 2018, a representative of the German family offered to return the work in exchange for a large sum of money (Italian media reported that the amount was 500,000 euros, or about $567,000), prompting the museum, as well as the Italian judicial authorities, to take action. Schmidt, the first German to lead the Uffizi Gallery, said: "We are trying to make German families understand that we have no legal status to buy things under the Italian and international law that we already have. ”
The Italian prosecutor and gendarmerie, the National Military Police, which investigated the theft of the artwork, began an investigation into the painting since it was stolen in Italy. They demanded the cooperation of the German judicial authorities. At the same time, they are also assessing whether the German family's demand for money can be considered extortion. Gen. Fabrizio Paruelli, commander of the Art Theft Unit of the Gendarmerie, said that "what belongs to the Italian state must be returned to the Italian state." He said his colleagues were currently working with Florentine prosecutors on the case, but declined to give specifics.
In this case, German officials say the 30-year statute of limitations means that when property is in private hands, there is simply no legal way to force it to return, and there is no basis for government intervention.
For years, Israeli and Jewish groups lobbied to make exceptions for Nazi-era looting in Germany. In 2012, after more than 1,000 works of art, including some Nazi art, were discovered in an apartment in Munich, the German government considered making some changes, but it never became law.
Uffizi Gallery
Schmidt said promoting the "Vase of Flowers" in this way should make it harder for Germans who hold the painting to sell it. In an interview with The New York Times, Schmidt said: "Thanks to this photograph in the room of pitti Palace, people will never forget that this work was stolen." At the same time, due to social media resonance, "no one can say 'I genuinely bought this piece.'"
But some experts believe Italy should examine its own record of stolen art. Italy was one of five countries that had recently been convened at the International Conference on the Return of Looted Art during World War II to address the issue of stolen records. Stuart E. Eizenstat, a former State Department official and White House adviser, said the Italian government had not conducted "species studies or listed artworks in its public museums that could have been looted by the Nazis" and that Italy seemed more interested in "what the Italian government had lost."
During the Nazi regime, the Germans, often under the direction of high-ranking officials, snatched thousands of precious items from Jews, political opponents, and conquered nations. And the fate of these items will continue to be news. Germany has pledged to return objects in public museums, although the action has been criticized as "too slow". At the same time, the restoration and return of private collections appears to be much more difficult. At the same time, all former colonial powers are facing increasing demands for the return of looted works of art and artifacts, including those they have owned for centuries; A recent report by the French government recommended the return of all items in its African museum.
Portrait of Jan van Huysum
In 1824, Leopoldo II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, bought the "Flower of a Vase". Subsequently, it was juxtaposed with a number of other Dutch still life works, including those of Rachel Ruysch and Willem van Aelst, in the Putitti Hall of the Pitti Palace. The palace was evacuated during World War II, and the painting, along with other works, was moved first to the Villa Medici in Poggio a Caiano on the outskirts of Florence, and then to Villa Bossi Pucci on the outskirts of the city. According to Uffizi, German soldiers transported art north before retreating from Florence in 1944 with the Allied march, at which point the "Flower of the Vase" disappeared from public records.
Jan van Huysum
In 1991, the Italian authorities first learned of the fate of the painting. Since then, the intermediaries of the German family have been intermittently involved in the negotiations. Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Gallery, said that the Uffizi Gallery has a large number of Dutch still life paintings, and the missing Jan Van Heissen is a gap that needs to be filled." He said in a statement: "This story is stopping the trauma caused by the Second World War and the horrific healing of Nazism. Germany has a moral and duty to return this painting to our museum, and I am confident that the German government will do so as soon as possible. Including other works of art stolen by the Wehrmacht. ”