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Düsseldorf (dpa) - In the year-long dispute over the valuable painting “The Foxes” by Franz Marc, the Düsseldorf city council decides on Thursday whether it will be returned to the heirs of the former Jewish owner.
The council members have a confidential draft resolution on which they will presumably vote towards evening as the last item on the agenda.
In a controversial decision, the Advisory Commission on Looted Art had recommended that the work be returned to the heirs of the Jewish entrepreneur Kurt Grawi (1887-1944).
The commission voted six to three in favor of restitution.
After 1933, Grawi was subjected to considerable repression in Germany.
In 1938 he was imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for several weeks.
In 1939 he was able to emigrate to Chile.
In 1940 he sold the picture in New York.
In 1962 it was donated to the Düsseldorf Municipal Art Museum.
Today the cubist painting, valued at at least 14 million euros, is one of the top works of the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf.
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In the opinion of the Advisory Commission, the sale of the painting is to be seen as a Nazi-persecution-related withdrawal, "although the sale has been concluded outside the Nazi sphere of influence" and a reasonable price had been paid.
The city of Düsseldorf, on the other hand, sees no evidence that Grawi did not achieve the market price.
He also had an influence on pricing.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210428-99-390690 / 2
PM advisory commission from 26.3.
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PM City Düsseldorf from 26.3.
Advisory Commission recommendation
Provenance of the painting