All posts tagged: restitution

Three Swiss Museums Return Trove of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

Three Swiss Museums Return Trove of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

Published by Jenni Sidey

Three Swiss museums have returned 18 royal and religious artifacts from the Kingdom of Benin to Nigeria, marking another significant repatriation of the so-called Benin Bronzes. A handover ceremony took place today at the University of Zurich between Swiss Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider and Nigeria’s Minister of Culture, Hannatu Musa Musawa. The university returned 14 objects from its Ethnographic Museum, while two additional Benin Bronzes came from Museum Rietberg Zurich and another two from the Musée d’Ethnographie de Genève.  Related Articles The Benin Bronzes refer to the approximately 5,000 bronze sculptures, ceremonial objects, and ivory carvings looted by British forces from the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now Nigeria, during the 1897 punitive expedition. Scattered across museums and private collections worldwide via illicit channels, the bronzes have become emblematic of efforts by formerly colonized countries to reclaim cultural heritage, as well as the broader—and often contentious—debate over the ethics of ethnographic collections.  Among the artifacts returned by Switzerland is a Benin Eroro, a four-sided ceremonial bell that played a central role in royal rites, …

Ireland Urged to Adopt New Restitution and Repatriation Laws

Ireland Urged to Adopt New Restitution and Repatriation Laws

Published by Jenni Sidey

Three years ago, in the summer of 2023, the Irish government formed a committee to advise museums and other cultural institutions on matters related to restitution and repatriation. That endeavor, known as the Advisory Committee on the Restitution and Repatriation of Cultural Heritage, presented its final report last month. According to The Art Newspaper, the report aims to address the “practical and legal impediments” that can prevent some institutions from properly responding to claims, whether related to colonial-era artifacts or cultural property looted during the Nazi regime. Therefore, the government should establish a national advisory panel to oversee such claims, along with funding to address impediments like limited provenance research, incomplete cataloguing and digitization of records, and a lack of access to specialists. Related Articles The report conducted a national survey of cultural heritage and presented some sobering key findings. Ninety percent of Irish institutions lack comprehensive online catalogs; many have large documentation backlogs, and only a small fraction of their collections are digitized. Few are accessible online. The committee recommends funding earmarked to improve …

Judge Gives David Nahmad 30 Days To Return Nazi-Looted Modigliani

Judge Gives David Nahmad 30 Days To Return Nazi-Looted Modigliani

Published by Jenni Sidey

A legal battle that went on for 11 years over a prized painting by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani came to a close in April, when billionaire art dealer David Nahmad and his family lost their bid to hold on to Seated Man With a Cane (1918), valued at upward of $25 million. The family had bought the painting at auction in 1996 for $3.2 million. But the Nahmads have not returned the piece, and now, a new ruling in New York Supreme Court on Tuesday, June 16 gives Nahmad 30 days to return the canvas to its rightful owners. Related Articles A court decided in April that the painting rightfully belonged to the estate of Jewish art dealer Oscar Stettiner, who left the painting behind when he fled Paris ahead of the Nazi occupation. The Nahmads, a Lebanese art-dealing dynasty, had argued that the painting’s history of ownership, or provenance, was unclear, making it uncertain whether this is the painting owned by Stettiner. The court rejected that claim, concluding it was illegally seized and transferred. …

Heir Sues for Restitution of .5 M. Gustav Klimt Portrait

Heir Sues for Restitution of $37.5 M. Gustav Klimt Portrait

Published by Jenni Sidey

A woman claiming to be the sole heir to the Austrian subject of a long-lost Gustav Klimt painting has sued for restitution of the portrait, which came to auction at the small Austrian auction house Im Kinsky in 2024. The painting sold on a single bid for $37.5 million, setting a record for any artwork sold at auction in Austria, but the bidder, a Hong Kong collector represented by Patti Wong and Associates, withdrew their offer after the sale. South Carolina–based Patricia J. Leahy, on her own behalf and that of Nickolas Johann Kraft and Hans Lieser, filed a suit in New York State Supreme Court on Thursday. The suit names Austria’s Eva Ropper and the auction house as defendants. Leahy is represented by Cleveland-based firm Baker & Hostetler. Related Articles The dispute is over Portrait of Fräulein Margarethe Lieser, which Klimt was working on when he died suddenly in 1918. The Lieser family of Jewish industrialists was persecuted by the Nazis, including being imprisoned, and lost almost all their possessions to Nazi seizure. Adolf …

Heir Says Cézanne in Fondation Beyeler Show Was Lost During Nazi Era

Heir Says Cézanne in Fondation Beyeler Show Was Lost During Nazi Era

Published by Jenni Sidey

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 …

Spanish Police Recover Missing Lucas Valdés Paintings Before Auction

Spanish Police Recover Missing Lucas Valdés Paintings Before Auction

Published by Jenni Sidey

Spanish police have recovered two 17th-century paintings by the Sevillian artist Lucas Valdés that disappeared nearly a century ago after the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition in Seville, according to authorities. The works surfaced earlier this year when they were consigned for auction, prompting an investigation by Spain’s National Police and the country’s culture ministry.  The two oval-shaped oil paintings on pine panel once belonged to the Hospital of the Venerable Priests in Seville, where they formed part of the decoration for the church’s main altarpiece. The paintings were loaned out for the 1929 exposition and never returned. Their whereabouts remained unknown for decades.  Related Articles According to El País, the investigation began in September 2025 after Spain’s Culture Ministry, alerted by the Archdiocese of Seville, notified police that two works scheduled to go up for auction appeared to match the long-missing Valdés paintings. Authorities intervened before the sale could proceed, effectively freezing the transaction while investigators confirmed the works’ identities.  Police ultimately contacted the paintings’ owners to explain the works’ legal and patrimonial status. Following negotiations involving the Archdiocese …

Catalonia Sues Aragón for Repayment Over Restitution of 56 Artworks

Catalonia Sues Aragón for Repayment Over Restitution of 56 Artworks

Published by José Betancourt

The Catalan government in Spain sent a formal demand to the Aragonese government asking for €791,000 (around $920,000) to recoup costs related to the value and upkeep of artworks from the Royal Monastery of Santa María de Sigena it was ordered to return in 2017, according to a report in El País. Of the 56 works, 12 had been kept at the National Art Museum of Catalonia and 44 at the Diocesan Museum of Lleida. The works were removed from the monastery in 1936 to protect them from ruin during the Spanish Civil War. In a ruling in 2021, the Supreme Court in Spain stated that “the items formed part of the artistic treasure of the Monastery of Sijena at the time it was declared a National Monument [in 1923], and therefore the protection afforded by that declaration must also extend to that artistic treasure.”  As noted by El País, the Catalan government stated in the document sent to the Aragonese government that “the consequence of declaring the purchase agreements null and void is the …

Wellcome Collection to Transfer 2,000 Manuscripts to Jain Community

Wellcome Collection to Transfer 2,000 Manuscripts to Jain Community

Published by José Betancourt

The Wellcome Collection in London announced Friday its plans to return 2,000 manuscripts to the Jain community. In an unusual move, however, they will not be returned to Pakistan, where many of the manuscripts were purchased a century ago, or to India, where the majority of Jains live today. Instead, they will head to the University of Birmingham’s Dharmanath Network in Jain Studies, which was established in 2023 and is wholly financed by Jain communities living in the UK, the US, and India. Related Articles In a release, the collection said it “believes this to be the most appropriate place to maximise community access, deepen research opportunities and safeguard the future of this significant collection.” The transfer comes after “several years of open dialogue” between the Wellcome Collection and the UK-based Institute of Jainology. The release adds that the Dharmanath Network “will open the collection to those researchers and faith communities who are best placed to read, interpret and translate their content for a global audience.” In a statement, Marie-Helene Gorisse, an assistant professor at …

Q&A with Open Restitution Africa’s Founders on ORA’s Open Data Platform

Q&A with Open Restitution Africa’s Founders on ORA’s Open Data Platform

Published by José Betancourt

On March 31, the research initiative Open Restitution Africa (ORA) launched the ORA Open Data Platform, a database that provides information on the restitution of African artifacts and ancestral remains. Developed over six years by ORA’s all-woman, pan-African team, the site uses case histories and AI-powered tools to offer practical insights into the return process. This resource, available in French and English, allows users to explore past restitution efforts and their outcomes, helping individuals and communities develop their own restitution strategies. Related Articles The ORA platform presents 25 case histories spanning 200 years. Using data visualizations, essays, and interactive tools, it addresses the lack of knowledge available to African communities, educators, activists, researchers, and other stakeholders wishing to carry the process of restitution forward. ARTnews interviewed ORA’s founders, Chao Tayiana Maina and Molemo Moiloa, about their reasons for creating ORA and how the ORA Open Data Platform works. Anne Doran: How did your project start? Chao Tayiana: I am a historian, and my interests are really around history and historical infrastructures, particularly how these intersect …

Judge Gives David Nahmad 30 Days To Return Nazi-Looted Modigliani

Nahmad Seeks to Reopen Modigliani Case With New Witness Testimony

Published by José Betancourt

David Nahmad’s lawyers are asking a New York court to revisit its recent decision in the long-running dispute over Amedeo Modigliani’s Seated Man with a Cane (1918), citing what they say is new eyewitness testimony that could reopen the case. In a motion filed after the court’s April 3 decision, which awarded the painting to the estate of dealer Oscar Stettiner, Nahmad’s legal team argues that the work at the center of the claim may have been misidentified from the start. The suit was brought by Stettiner’s grandson, Philippe Maestracci, who has been trying to recover the painting for more than a decade alongside the restitution firm Mondex. The work, estimated to be worth more than $25 million, was bought at auction by a Nahmad-linked company in 1996 and has been kept in Switzerland since.  Related Articles At the center of the new filing are two witnesses who say they remember a different Modigliani once held by the Van der Klip family in Paris. According to Nahmad’s lawyers, that family came into possession of the painting during …