A 1913 painting forced into sale by the Nazis is finally being returned to the family it belonged to

In 1913, Cubist theorist Jean Metzinger painted Woman with a Fan in Paris. In 1940, the Nazis coerced the piece into being sold at auction during their occupation of the Netherlands. This year, the Art Institute of Chicago stated that it will return the piece to the heirs of the painting’s original Jewish owner.

Woman with a Fan’s journey to the Art Institute of Chicago was one that took many years, as it passed through the hands of several parties before landing there. However, its journey back to the family it once belonged to should take a much shorter time.

The painting’s winding journey through time

According to The Art Newspaper, after Metzinger created the work in 1913 and later purchased in 1919 by Paul Citreon. Citreon sold the painting to his relative Emmanuel Lewenstein in 1928. After Lewenstein passed away, it’s believed that his widow sent Woman with a Fan and other pieces to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam for safekeeping.

By the time the Nazis were auctioning the piece in 1940, she had already died, and all her children had emigrated. The painting went missing after that, but later reappeared in the 1950s in the Dutch art market before reportedly making its way across Paris, then New York City. The painting reached the Art Institute of Chicago in 1959 after Mr. and Mrs. Sigmund Kunstadter donated it.

It has remained on display there since then, or at least up until the Art Institute discovered the painting’s origin. After that, it was removed from public display.

The museum had researched the painting’s history for years

The Art Institute of Chicago had been researching the history of Woman with a Fan and trying to trace its original owners for years. However, it wasn’t until the museum had an exchange with Mondex Corporation that the piece was linked to the Lewensteins. The Mondex Corporation is a firm out of Toronto specializing in art that was taken during the Holocaust. Reportedly, the big break in locating the owners was made after researchers used infrared imaging and located Citreon’s name scribbled in pencil on the back.

Dr. Jacques Schuhmacher, Executive Director of Provenance Research at the Art Institute of Chicago, purportedly explained, “This allowed us to make a connection between our painting and the Lewenstein family for the first time. With the evidence written on the painting itself, we carried out additional research in collaboration with the Mondex Corporation.”

Now, the museum is working on returning it to the original owners’ heirs, about which Scuhmacher stated, “This return reflects our commitment to take decisive action when new research clarifies the provenance of a work.”

Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, counsel for Mondex and the architect of the 1998 Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art and the 2009 Terezin Declaration, also reportedly chimed in on the development in a statement and shared, “It is gratifying to see this painting returned to the Lewenstein family heirs, and the Art Institute of Chicago is to be congratulated for being an invaluable partner in making this return a reality.”

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