Morality dictates the conclusion to be drawn from the “looting” of art by the Nazis in World War II is such art should be returned to the heirs of the owners the Nazis “stole” it from.
Legality may dictate otherwise due to the civil law doctrine in Germany (and in common law jurisdictions) a purchaser in good faith holding legal title to that property is entitled to maintain legal title unless the sale was under duress. Can a sale of art by Jews under Nazi threats and harassment be a “sale”?
Canadian documentary “The Spoils” is a study on the “stolen art” of German Jew Max Stern (1904-1987) owner of Galerie Stern in the German city of Düsseldorf whose art was “auctioned off” in 1937 at the “Jew auction house” of Lempertz.
The Nazis’ genocidal agenda included cultural obliteration requiring excising Jews from the art world. Stern was ordered to close his gallery by the Nazi bureaucracy and to raise funds to escape Nazi Germany had to sell his vast art collection at Lempertz.
There are many, restitutionalists, who believe in the concept founded in Holocaust morality, stolen art must be restituted to the heirs of owner of the stolen art. They rely on the legal concept of duress to invalidate the “free will” sale of the original owner. They also rely on genocidally based moral grounds to justify the return of such art.
Another school somewhat antagonistic to the beliefs of the restitutionalists relies on the doctrine of the good faith purchaser of stolen art to justify the passing of legal title to the purchaser. Some claim this school simmers with antisemitism.
Both schools battle it out over a planned Max Stern art exhibit at the Dusseldorf City Museum in 2021 which rose from the ashes of a previously last-minute 2018 cancellation of the exhibit by the mayor of Düsseldorf.
The 2021 exhibit was rejected by the Jewish community of Düsseldorf and restitutionalists as bogus and shoddy. The documentary explains the battle in detail. It is hard to fathom the legitimacy and sincerity of such an event given the facts presented in the documentary.
Archival footage of Nazi rallies and of Goering and Hitler as recipients of some of Stern’s art adds an element of authentic drama to the decimation of Nazi genocide and questions the alleged “authenticity” of sales of art by Jews was free will.
Only 25 paintings in 23 years in the Stern collection have been restituted. 400-500 claims are still pending.
From a feature film perspective both the legality and morality aspects of Nazi stolen art are forcefully probed in the 2015 movie “Woman in Gold” starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds. Both “Woman in Gold” and “The Spoils” should be viewed in tandem.
Here is a clip from “The Spoils” https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12plMh-enLP072dbkTtqCTKr9ElLQWtAH
Directed and written by Jamie Kastner.
Theatrical release commences in Canada on 4April2025.
RKS 2025 CANADIAN Documentary Rating 88/100.
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