The flowers the Mayer family left in a Brussels crate

Gustav and Emma Mayer left Frankfurt in 1938 and travelled through Brussels before reaching Britain in August 1939. Their belongings could not all go with them. Among the paintings left in storage was Lovis Corinth’s Flowers, a 1913 still life of pink blossoms in a blue vase. The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg seized it from storage in occupied Belgium.

After Brussels was liberated, museum director Leo Van Puyvelde recovered the canvas. The Belgian economic recovery service entrusted it to the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in 1951. The museum knew the picture had been plundered but had yet to identify its owners. At the end of 2016 a lawyer acting for the descendants supplied documents identifying the work and asked the museum to investigate its provenance.

The museum handed the painting back on 10 February 2022. West Germany had previously compensated the family for losses that included the Corinth. Belgium’s account records that reimbursement of the portion for this painting was to follow the handover. The return therefore resolved the fate of a specific canvas and required the authorities to account for an earlier payment.