Restitution of a work once looted by the Nazis at the Jewish Museum of Belgium

The ceremony was accompanied by a temporary exhibition: “Stolen Jewish heritages: the fate of the Andriesse collection”, retracing the life of the couple. After their flight from Brussels to New York in 1940, the Andriesses’ art and textile collection was looted by the Nazi occupation regime in Belgium. Part of the collection remains untraceable.

The curator of the exhibition and research fellow at the Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project (JDCRP), Anne Uhrlandt, wanted to highlight the couple’s influence on the Belgian cultural scene before the Second World War.

“The Andriesses, very influential and socially respected in Brussels, were known for their donations to various charitable causes, without distinction of gender or religion,” detailed Anne Uhrlandt. “Nearly 80 years after the end of the Holocaust, it is time to bring their names and their memory back to their hometown,” she said.

More than a “found object, it is an act of justice towards the names that deserve to be made visible”, concluded the director of the Museum, Barbara Cuglietta.