Heirs of a German Jewish collector have sued the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation of New York for the return of a famous painting by Pablo Picasso, which was allegedly sold under the threat of Nazi persecution 85 years ago and is in the collection of the Guggenheim Museum in the Big Apple.
The lawsuit, filed on January 20 at the Manhattan Supreme Courtclaims that ‘Woman Ironing’ (1904) was sold under duress in 1938 when its owner, Karl Adler, chairman of the board of directors of Europe’s largest leather factory at the time, hastened to flee Nazi Germany with his wife, Rosi Jacobi. The plaintiffs in the case, which include one of Adler and Jacobi’s direct descendants, Thomas Bennigson, and numerous Jewish charities, are seeking the return of the artwork or, as the case may be, compensation of between 100 and 200 million dollars for damages.
The case, which was brought under the provisions of the 2016 Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act, may boil down to whether or not the artwork was found to have been sold illegally or through extortion, reports ‘Art Net’. «[Adler] he got rid of the painting because of the Nazi persecution to which he and his family had been subjected,” the file reads.
President of a major leather manufacturer, Adler purchased this celebrated Blue Period painting in 1916 from a Munich-based gallery owner, Heinrich Thannhauser. Twenty-two years later, the businessman and his wife fled Germany amid growing threats of persecution from the Nazis.
The couple planned to emigrate to Argentina and needed money to cover the cost of visas. Adler sold the Picasso to Heinrich Thannhauser’s son, Justin, for $1,552. The complaint from Adler’s heir alleges that the sale was “forced” and its price “well below” market value. “Thannhauser, one of Picasso’s leading dealers, acquired the painting at a clearance price,” the lawsuit says. “At the time of the sale, Thannhauser was buying masterpieces owned by other Jews fleeing Germany and profiting from his misfortune. Thannhauser was well aware of the plight of Adler and his family. Had it not been for the Nazi persecution, he would never have sold the painting even at that price ».
Picture entered the collection of the Guggenheim in New York in 1978, following a deposit from Justin Thannhauser in 1965 and the intention to sell it. But before the acquisition was final, Guggenheim administrators investigated the painting’s past and contacted Karl Adler’s son, Eric. According to a statement from the museum, the museum “did not raise any concerns about the painting or its sale. Extensive research by the Guggenheim since they were first contacted by a lawyer representing the plaintiffs shows that the Guggenheim is the rightful owner of the painting. There is no evidence that Karl Adler or his three sons, now deceased, regarded the sale as unfair or regarded Thannhauser as an actor in bad faith, either at the time of the transaction or at any time thereafter.”
The heirs, including California lawyer Thomas Bennigson, first contacted the museum in 2017 about ‘Woman Ironing’, but allege in the lawsuit that the institution refused to return the piece.”unique and irreplaceable».
The painting is on display, as it has been since it was purchased 45 years ago. But it does not have a label stating that it “changed hands due to theft, seizure, confiscation, forced sale or other inadvertent means” during the Nazi era, as required by a recently passed New York law.