Tate Britain, one of the UK’s foremost museums, will return a painting by English artist Henry Gibbs to the heirs of a Jewish art collector looted during World War II, the British Ministry of Culture announced on Saturday.
The 1654 oil painting, “Aeneas and His Family Fleeing Burning Troy,” depicts the Trojan hero Aeneas trying to save his family from the burning city. It was stolen from Samuel Hartveld.
Hartveld, a Jewish collector, had to flee his home in Antwerp, Belgium, in May 1940 during the German offensive.
The Spoliation Advisory Panel, a special committee established by the British government, ruled that the artwork was indeed looted and should be returned to Hartveld’s descendants. No date for the restitution has been set.
“This decision clearly acknowledges the terrible Nazi persecution Samuel Hartveld suffered,” said the trust representing his heirs, praising the museum’s response. Museum director Maria Balshaw expressed her pleasure in welcoming Hartveld’s heirs “in the coming months” for the painting’s restitution.
The museum purchased the artwork from the Jan de Maere Gallery in Brussels in 1994, unaware that it was looted. Hartveld’s heirs formally requested its return in May 2024.
During the Second World War, the Nazis systematically looted artworks owned by Jews. These were often sold, collected by high-ranking officials, or earmarked for Hitler’s planned “Führermuseum.”
Near the war’s end, the United States sent teams of museum directors, curators, and art experts to Europe to rescue cultural treasures. Their efforts led to the quick return of many looted works. However, of the 650,000 stolen items, an estimated 100,000 remained unrecovered by 2009, according to data from an international conference in Terezin, Czech Republic.
In France, a framework law passed on 22 July 2023, allowed exceptions to the inalienability of museum works if they were looted during anti-Semitic persecutions.
This led to several restitutions, including two paintings by Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley returned in May of this year to the heirs of Jewish gallery owner Grégoire Schusterman, looted during the Occupation.
