The Langmatt Museum in Baden, Switzerland, announced Thursday, November 28, that it had signed amicable agreements with the heirs of the ex-owners of two paintings by Paul Cézanne and Eugène Boudin, two works which could have been stolen under the Nazi regime.
This museum, located in a village 25 kilometers northwest of Zurich, Switzerland, has published the results of a study into the origins of its thirteen paintings, most of them impressionist. These paintings were acquired between 1933 and 1940 by the couple Jenny and Sidney Brown, members of the co-founding family of the electrical engineering company Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC), now ABB.
The study on the origin of the thirteen paintings, supported by the Federal Office of Culture, lasted almost three years. For eleven of these works, “no clues or evidence of Nazi-looted art were found as a result of the research project, or such a link could be ruled out“, the museum said in a press release. It houses one of the most important private collections of French impressionism in Europe.
Two works, however, were classified in the so-called “clearly problematic“, the press release continues, adding that in these two cases “a fair and equitable solution was found” with the heirs.
The table Fruits and jar of ginger by Paul Cézanne was one of three works by the French painter that were sold to save the museum from ruin during an auction organized by Christie’s on November 9, 2023, in New York.
The museum indicates that in the fall of 2023, a document was found in an institute housing archives in Cologne which allows the conclusion that the sale of this painting on November 5, 1933 by an art gallery in Lucerne to the Browns “could be considered a confiscation linked to Nazi persecution“. “The Langmatt Foundation then proactively contacted the heirs of the former owner Jacob Goldschmidt (1896-1976) and reached an agreement“, indicates the museum.
In 2022, research has also shown that a table entitled Fisherwomen on Berck beach by Eugène Boudin, another French painter, was among the works sought by a German foundation which developed a database relating to works looted by the Nazis.
Again, the Langmatt Foundation contacted “proactively the heirs of the painting and reached an agreement” compensation so that the work can remain the property of the institution and be exhibited in the Swiss museum. The Browns had purchased this painting on May 23, 1936 in a gallery in Geneva. It belonged at the time to Richard Semmel ( 1875-1950), an industrialist and collector of Jewish art.
