THE ARCHIVE BY COUNTRY
Published reports from our archive, newest first.
A country may refer to the theft, recovery, return or legal proceedings. A case can be linked to more than one country.
189 reports · Page 7 / 9
Guggenheim agrees to restitute Kirchner’s Artillerymen — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
The Guggenheim agreed to return Artillerymen to Alfred Flechtheim’s heirs after provenance research established its persecution-related history. The announcement records a restitution agreement, rather than a newly reported theft.
The National Museum in Warsaw received Melchior Geldorp’s seventeenth-century Portrait of a Lady, lost from its collection during World War II. U.S. Homeland Security Investigations located and secured the painting in Los Angeles in 2016. The photograph shows the painting at the Warsaw ceremony.
Vaughn Judson’s memory sketch of Ginny; not a photograph of the sculpture. Courtesy of the artist / Seven Days. Image source ↗
Vaughn Judson told Seven Days that her concrete sculpture Ginny was stolen from a Jeep in Vermont in winter 1980. She advertised $100 for its return in 2018. The illustration is her memory sketch, not a photograph.
Renoir’s Two Women in a Garden returned to Weinberger’s heir — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
The Renoir was presented to Sylvie Sulitzer, granddaughter of collector Alfred Weinberger, at a New York ceremony. It had been looted from the family’s bank vault in Paris in 1941.
The Ninth Circuit upheld dismissal of Marei von Saher’s claim against the Norton Simon Museum over Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Adam and Eve panels. Installation photo of the two panels: Norton Simon Museum.
Robert Motherwell, Untitled (1967), at its return. Photograph: Eileen Kinsella / Artnet News. Image source ↗
Authorities returned the 1967 Untitled to the Dedalus Foundation. Recorded as missing or stolen around 1978, the painting resurfaced when a former moving-company worker’s son contacted the foundation and voluntarily surrendered it to the FBI.
Alain Dreyfus sought repayment for Alfred Sisley’s Premier jour de printemps à Moret after provenance researchers linked it to the Lindon family and Nazi confiscation. Christie’s said it had tried to bring the parties together and that the sale warranty had expired.
An archaeologist linked an Etruscan black-figure amphora in a Christie’s sale catalogue to images in the confiscated Gianfranco Becchina archive. The house withdrew the amphora. A separate bronze boar flagged by the same researcher remained in the sale. Photo shows the amphora in the archive.
Marc Chagall, Othello and Desdemona (1911). FBI. Image source ↗
The US filed a civil forfeiture complaint concerning Othello and Desdemona (1911), recovered after its 1988 theft. The action sought its return to the Heller estate. This report records a filing, not a completed restitution.
A state court dismissed the Mayor Gallery’s lawsuit against the committee behind Agnes Martin’s catalogue raisonné. The London gallery had challenged the refusal to include 13 works it had previously sold as Martin’s. The photo shows an installation of Agnes Martin’s work at MoMA.
Lawsuits concerning buyer Zhang Chang’s unpaid purchase of Gerhard Richter’s Düsenjäger at Phillips and a claim to a Francis Bacon painting used in related financing were settled confidentially. The image shows the Richter painting.
Art Recovery International traced five works by Hans Hofmann that had disappeared from a Manhattan art storage facility. One surfaced in the auction trade, leading to four others. The agency reported in December 2017 that a sixth work, Arcanum, was still missing. Image: Art Recovery International via Artnet.
Norman Rockwell, Taking a Break (Boy Asleep with Hoe). FBI. Image source ↗
The FBI returned Taking a Break, also known as Boy Asleep with Hoe, to the Grant family. It was stolen from their home in 1976. The cooperating possessor was not believed to have participated in the theft.
Counterfeit artworks sold by Eric Spoutz; FBI Image source ↗
Eric Ian Hornak Spoutz received imprisonment for selling dozens of forgeries attributed to artists including de Kooning, Franz Kline and Joan Mitchell, using aliases and fabricated provenance.
Verzijl’s Young Man as Bacchus returned to Max Stern’s heirs — artwork or case documentation from the linked image source. Image source ↗
The FBI returned the painting after identifying it at a New York art fair. It had been sold during Galerie Stern’s forced liquidation under Nazi persecution; the holding gallery waived its ownership claim.
Sotheby’s refunded the buyer after concluding that the Saint Jerome sold as a work from the circle of Parmigianino was a forgery. The finding is attributed to the auction house.
Illuminated manuscript fragment returned in the same ceremony as the Carelli painting. Image source ↗
Italy’s foreign ministry reported a handover of a nineteenth-century Carelli painting and fourteenth-century illuminated manuscript material. The painting had been stolen in Naples in 2001 and traced through a Pennsylvania auction.
Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse, Manhattan. GSA photograph used for institutional context; not an artwork or evidence from this case. Image source ↗
Federal prosecutors charged Leon Zinder with selling 13 African and Native American artworks stolen from a private collection. Authorities said most had been recovered. These were allegations at publication, not a conviction.
Torlonia Peplophoros. Photo: Manuelarosi, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/); resized and converted to WebP. Image source ↗
The FBI presented the Roman marble statue to Italian officials after forfeiture proceedings. It had been stolen from Villa Torlonia in Rome in November 1983 and later surfaced in New York.
Sam Tufnell’s resin sculpture Power Gnome: Electric Blueberry was removed from an outdoor installation at the Cornell Art Museum in Delray Beach. It was part of the group exhibition Lit. The image is the artist’s missing-work poster.
The Toledo Museum of Art’s Ganesha bronze returned to India. Photograph: Toledo Museum of Art. Image source ↗
US authorities announced the return to India of a roughly thousand-year-old bronze Ganesha. The Toledo Museum of Art, which had acquired it from Subhash Kapoor, voluntarily surrendered the sculpture after evidence established its theft and illicit export.
