Munich’s Neue Pinakothek, one of Bavaria’s state-run galleries, told that the painting, Fischerboote bei Frauenchiemsee (1884) by Austrian painter Joseph Wopfner was bought by Nazi Party leader Martin Bormann in 1924 for the Reich’s Munich headquarters. The Bavarian State Painting Collections have returned the Nazi looted painting.
The painting is returned to the heirs of Nuremberg toy manufacturer and art collector Abraham Adelsberger, who died in 1940. He willed his art collection to his son-in-law Alfred Isay in 1933, who took it to Amsterdam while fleeing from the Nazis.
The painting originally belonged to Abraham Adelsberger, who was a toy manufacturer and art collector based in Nuremberg. Before his death in 1940, he had named his son-in-law Alfred Isay as the heir to his art collection. While Isay took most of his collection with him when he fled to Amsterdam, he and his family lived under considerable pressure during the Nazi occupation. Apart from being deported to concentration camps, Isay was also forced to part ways with many of the artworks of his collection. It is assumed that the Wopfner painting was one of them
It is still unknown when Alfred Isay lost possession of Fischerboote bei Frauenchiemsee, but records from the era indicate that, during occupation, the family was under pressure from German authorities to sell off their collection. The trove of works looted from Dutch collectors was obtained by the American government at the end of the war and the paintings were transferred to the Munich Central Collecting Point.
“We hope that this matter will be spread around the world so that future generations can also learn about the history of the Adelsberger-Isay family during the terrible Holocaust,” the family’s lawyer, Nathan Scheftelowitz, said in a statement. The family will continue to pursue the entirety of their looted collection, which contained paintings, sculptural works, and porcelain objects.
Germany’s Bavarian State has now restituted 20 works to the heirs of Jewish owners which includes the cities of Munich and Nuremberg. “Every restitution serves to raise awareness of former injustices, former life fates and often losses, expulsions and murders,” Bernhard Maaz, general director of the Bavarian State Painting Collections, said in a statement.