German Restitution Of 'Looted' Franc Marc Painting To Jewish Family Suspended

The return of a valuable painting by Franz Marc to the heirs of its former Jewish owner has been put on hold due to a criminal complaint, a spokeswoman for the city of Dusseldorf told Dorothea Huelsmeier of Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

In April, Dusseldorf's city council voted to return "The Foxes" to the descendants of Jewish entrepreneur Kurt Grawi, who was persecuted in Nazi Germany, ending a years-long dispute about whether the 1913 expressionist painting was looted art or not.

A few days after the decision, however, the city's public prosecutor received a complaint for attempted breach of trust, the spokeswoman for Dusseldorf said. The charges are directed against the city officials and councilors who agreed to the restitution.

The restitution has been stopped for the time being and the prosecution has asked the city administration to hand over the relevant documents, the spokeswoman said.

Therefore, Dusseldorf "has not yet been able to complete the restitution" of the artwork, she added.

The cubist painting, estimated to be worth at least 14 million euros ($16.6 dollars), is one of the prized pieces at the city's Museum Kunstpalast, to which it was donated in 1962. The return of the work was considered controversial because Grawi had put it up for sale after emigrating to Chile, selling it in New York in 1940.

In the opinion of an advisory commission, however, the sale was a direct consequence of Grawi's imprisonment in a concentration camp and subsequent escape.

The lawyer representing Grawi's heirs, Markus Stoetzel, spoke of a "political maneuver by certain groups who are against restitution and for whom late restitution is a thorn in the side." His client is now 91 years old, he noted. "She would like to live to see the restitution," Stoetzel told dpa.

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