June 13, 2023, by Catherine Hickley – Excerpt
“The German government’s advisory panel on Nazi-looted art has recommended a vibrant tempera painting by Wassily Kandinsky be returned to the heirs of a Jewish family who suffered persecution under the Nazis in the Netherlands during World War II.”
“The painting, “Colorful Life,” from 1907, was part of an extensive art collection belonging to Emanuel Albert Lewenstein, the director of a sewing machine factory, and his wife, Hedwig Lewenstein Weyermann. It is thought to have been on loan from the family to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam when the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940 and was auctioned off in October of that year.”
“Colorful Life” is considered an important moment in Kandinsky’s journey from figurative painting to abstraction. A host of characters in traditional Russian dress dance, embrace, play, pray, beg or fight in a dreamlike landscape: In the background, a white onion-domed citadel gleams over a river from the top of a blue mountain shaped like a boulder.”
“The heirs, represented by Mondex Corporation, welcomed what James Palmer, its founder, described as a “wise and well-founded recommendation.”
“Francesca Davis, the granddaughter of Hedwig and Emanuel Lewenstein said in a statement: “My late parents and grandparents would be extremely pleased about the decision in this matter.”
This is an excerpt from this New York Times article. Full article through this link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/13/arts/kandinsky-painting-german-bank-jewish-heirs.html?searchResultPosition=3
