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News
17th century Bacchus painting recovered by FBI
FBI agents have recovered a 17th century oil painting of god of wine Bacchus by Dutch master Jan Franse Verzijl that disappeared over 80 years ago.
Young Man as Bacchus by Jan Franse Verzijl
Young Man as Bacchus was one of 400 works confiscated by the Nazis from German-Jewish art dealer Max Stern before World War II.
Stern’s art collector father set up Gallery Stern in Dusseldorf before World War I.
Max took over the business upon his death in 1934 but was forced to sell his paintings for a fraction of their cost by the Nazis in 1936 before being exiled.
Stern’s lost art collection is slowly being tracked down around the world – so far 16 of his artworks have been recovered.
“Dr Stern was a victim of legalised persecution in his native Germany due to his religion,” said Maria Vullo, head of the Holocaust Claims Processing Office, which tracks down art stolen by the Nazis.
“That caused him to become, in turn, a refugee, ‘an enemy alien’, ‘a civilian alien’, and finally in his new home in Montreal a successful and influential art dealer,” she added.
Young Man as Bacchus was most recently owned by the Luigi Caretto Gallery in Turin. With no idea of its history, the gallery consigned it for sale at a New York art fair in 2015.
When FBI investigators learnt of the paintings whereabouts in New York, they seized it.
The painting was handed over yesterday to representatives of the Stern Foundation at a ceremony at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage.