A Cézanne watercolor recently shown at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel may have been lost by its Jewish owner as a result of Nazi persecution, according to a provenance researcher working for the man’s heir. The work, La Montagne Sainte Victoire (ca. 1888), appeared in the Beyeler’s recent Cézanne exhibition, which closed Monday. Its lender was identified in the catalogue only as a private collector. Researcher Willi Korte told the Art Newspaper that he uncovered documents in Basel’s public archives showing that Gustav Schweitzer, a Jewish businessman who fled Berlin in 1935, loaned the watercolor to a 1936 exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel. Correspondence reviewed by Korte shows that Schweitzer later asked the museum’s curator to keep the watercolor safe after the exhibition and help find a buyer for it. The curator arranged for the work to be restored at Schweitzer’s expense, but after no sale materialized, the watercolor was sent back to Schweitzer’s secretary in Paris in 1939. What happened to the work afterward remains unclear. Related Articles Korte argued that the circumstances suggest the work was either sold …