Odalisque Painting - Paul Rosenberg Heirs and Seattle Art Museum (Henry Matisse)
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https://plone.unige.ch/art-adr/cases-affaires/odalisque-painting-2013-paul-rosenberg-heirs-and-seattle-art-museum
In June 1999, the Seattle Art Museum returned the painting Oriental Woman Seated on Floor (also known as Odalisque), by Henri Matisse, to the heirs of Paul Rosenberg. The painting was donated to the museum in 1991 by the Bloedel family. The museum decided to return the artwork following a thorough and independent investigation into the painting’s past that revealed that it was stolen by the Nazis from Paul Rosenberg’s collection in the 1940s.
I. Chronology
Nazi looted art
1941: Nazi authorities confiscated the art collection of Paul Rosenberg, a prominent Jewish art dealer based in Paris. The collection consisted of about 162 paintings and included the painting Oriental Woman Seated on Floor (also known as Odalisque), by Henri Matisse.
1954: The Odalisque was acquired by the New York art gallery Knoedler & Co. from the Paris based Galerie Drouant-David. In the same year, the Knoedler gallery sold the painting to Prentice and Virginia Bloedel.
1991: The Bloedels bequeathed the painting to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM).[1]
1997: The heirs of Paul Rosenberg fortuitously discovered the location of the painting.[2] Consequently, the Rosenbergs notified the museum that the Odalisque had been looted by the Nazis and demanded its restitution. The SAM refused but obtained a “tolling agreement”, which gave the museum time to evaluate the restitution request.[3]
1998: The SAM asked the Holocaust Art Restitution Project (HARP) to investigate the provenance of Odalisque.[4]
August 1998: The Rosenbergs filed suit in the Federal District Court against the SAM in order to recover the Odalisque.[5]
14 June 1999: The SAM returned the painting to the heirs of Paul Rosenberg after HARP’s research confirmed that it was one of the paintings stolen from Paul Rosenberg.[6]
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II. Dispute Resolution Process
Judicial claim - Negotiation
The Rosenbergs sought the return of the painting through negotiation. In order to succeed, they provided the museum with proof that it was stolen from Paul Rosenberg. In particular, the Rosenbergs heavily relied on the research contained in Hector Feliciano’s book The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World’s Greatest Works of Art (1996).
With respect to the Rosenberg claim, Feliciano affirmed in an interview that it was a “very solid claim where you have documents all the way through from the 1930s through the 1960s showing that the painting belonged to the Rosenbergs”. [7]
Although the Seattle Museum did not return the painting immediately upon request, it did not reject the claim. As said by Marianne Rosenberg, there was no hostility on the part of museum’s representatives, who had been “very helpful and very genteel”.[8] As an institution that holds its works in the public trust, SAM asked some time to fully research the claim of the Rosenbergs. In effect, the parties concluded a “tolling agreement”. Under its terms, SAM obtained an unspecified period of time[9] to await the conclusion of HARP’s independent investigation into the painting’s past ownership. This was a time-consuming process, but it was necessary for the museum in order to decide the most suitable course of action. HARP’s research was essential to confirm that the painting stolen from Paul Rosenberg was the same painting in SAM’s collection and not one of many other Matisse works with similar titles and subjects. In addition, HARP had to confirm that this painting was not among the stolen artworks that Rosenberg or his family recovered before his death in 1959.[10]
Although the result of HARP’s investigation was unequivocal, SAM’s representatives concluded that they could not return Odalisque without a legal proceeding.[11] Essentially, the museum asked the family to sue so that it could reach a comprehensive settlement that would include the New York art gallery Knoedler & Co. Accordingly, the Rosenbergs filed a lawsuit against the museum. On the one hand, this allowed the museum to return the Odalisque. On the other hand, the lawsuit allowed SAM to implead Knoedler in order to recover the market value of the painting.[12] The SAM alleged that the gallery acquired and resold the painting knowing that it was stolen by the Nazis and therefore contended that Knoedler breached title warranty and misrepresented the painting’s provenance. This dispute was also settled out-of-court.[13]
Etc.
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