Swiss museum compensates Jewish heirs for Camille Pissarro painting

Kunstmuseum Basel compensates heirs of a Jewish art collector Keystone-SDA

The Kunstmuseum Basel is compensating the heirs of a Jewish collector for a painting by Camille Pissarro that was sold under duress in 1933. The museum received the painting as a donation around three years ago.

The heirs are satisfied with the solution that has been found. The money for the compensation comes from the acquisition fund and does not affect the museum’s budget. The amount of the compensation was not communicated.

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The painting La Maison Rondest, l’Hermitage, Pontoise from 1875 was donated to the Kunstmuseum Basel on the occasion of the exhibition of works by Camille Pissarro, according to the statement. According to the communiqué, it came from the Riehen collection of Klaus von Berlebsch, who donated the painting, which was initially intended as a loan, to the museum.

Standard provenance research

The Kunstmuseum then researched the provenance of the work, as has been standard practice since the adoption of the provenance research strategy in 2022. The painting is listed on the website www.lostart.de – albeit under a different title and without an image. This is why the previous owner, who has since passed away, was unaware of the work’s original provenance.

The painting was owned by the Jewish textile entrepreneur Richard Semmel until the Nazis seized power. He sold the painting while fleeing from Germany. Following recognition of the loss due to Nazi persecution, the lawyer Olaf S. Ossmann, who has represented the heirs of Richard Semmel for many years, was contacted and the work was reported as being in the Kunstmuseum’s collection.

Adapted from German by DeepL/ac

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