Jewish Family Reclaims Painting Stolen By Belgium After 71 Years

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts, a leading art museum in Belgium, has returned a painting to the family of a German Jewish couple from whom it was stolen.  

The painting named “Flowers” was taken after the family fled Germany to Brussels during the Second World War, before ending up in Britain.

It was painted by Lovis Corinth and had belonged to Gustav and Emma Mayer before they fled their home in Nazi Germany in 1938.

The painting of a blue vase filled with pink flowers is one of 30 artworks the Mayer family is searching for.

“This is the first that has been really identified because, unfortunately, we have no images of the missing paintings,” family lawyer Imke Gielen said.

After the war, Belgian authorities failed to establish the owner of the painting and entrusted it to the museum in 1951, where it has since hung.

On Thursday, the museum also launched two rooms containing and addressing Nazi-looted art and works taken by Belgium during its colonial period.

The museum’s director, Michel Draguet, said it had been easier to find the original owners of artworks in the case of Jewish families living in Belgium, because of the archives and contacts.

“Here, it was impossible even to know if this work is coming from Germany, from another country,” Draguet said.