A painting, titled Lot with His Two Daughters Serving Him a Drink, by Nicolas poussin which the Nazis looted from its Jewish owner in France during the time of occupation, has been discovered in Italy. The painting was successfully returned to its rightful heir by the Italian Government, according to the Carabinieri, Italy’s national police force.
Last year, when a 98-year-old Swiss woman and a 65-year-old American, began combing through a database of property looted in France throughout the second World War, the search for the missing painting started. After finding the painting on the site, they filed a request for its return through the Italian government.
Though much of its journey following the occupation remains a mystery, a special unit dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage managed to establish the provenance of the piece. They determined that, in 2017, the painting was bought in France by an Italian antiques dealer, who lent it to Belgium for an exhibition. Afterward, the work was sold to a dealer from Milan, who subsequently exhibited it in 2019 in Maastricht in the Netherlands. It was during at this exhibition that a viewer, a Dutch antiquities expert, recognized it as a looted Poussin.
The Italian police force tracked the work to the home of the antiques dealer near Padua, in northeastern Italy. The Poussin was seized and returned to its heirs.