Restitution claims

A 17th-century Dutch painting looted during the Second World War, which has been in the collection of the Lord Mayor of the City of London since the 1980s, is finally being returned to its rightful heir.

The UK government plans to renew the Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Act 2009 to extend beyond its 2019 end to ensure the law remains indefinitely.

A view of Venice by Michele Marieschi (1710-44) which was seized by the Nazis in 1940 will be offered at Sotheby’s this summer following an agreement over a longstanding restitution claim.

Dutch Old Master marine painting looted by the Nazis during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 has been returned to Poland.

A court in the US has given the go-ahead for Germany to be sued for the return of Nazi-looted art and artefacts under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

A much-exhibited early 19th century drawing, restituted in August to the heirs of a Holocaust victim, has immediately appeared for sale in Germany.

The heir of the Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker is planning to appeal against a court ruling over the ownership of a pair of works by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Calls for greater transparency in the way German institutions deal with Nazi-looted art should be extended to the country’s art and antiques trade, the Commission for Looted Art in Europe has said.

A group of restituted paintings were among the highlights of a robust series of Impressionist and Modern art auctions in London.

The Kunstmuseum Bern’s announcement that it would accept the Gurlitt bequest (aside from any Nazi-looted art) has been followed by a pledge by Germany’s culture minister to return the disputed Matisse and other works to the families of their original owners.

The Jane Austen’s House Museum at Chawton in Hampshire has raised the £150,000 needed to keep a gold turquoise ring once owned by Jane Austen in the country.

FOLLOWING the confidential settlement made between The Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation and the heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Picasso’s 1903 portrait of his friend Angel Fernandez de Soto will be offered for sale at Christie’s in London on June 23 with an estimate of £30-40m.

AN agreement over the disputed Blue Period Picasso painting The Absinthe Drinker may well lead to a clearer legal definition of what constitutes art sold under Nazi duress.