Decision to do this secretly is surprising': NGV returns painting lost in Nazi era to Jewish family

"The National Gallery of Victoria has quietly returned a 17th-century painting to the descendants of a Jewish family who lost it during the Nazi era, without public announcement or explanation. The painting, Lady with a Fan by Gerard ter Borch, was removed from the NGV's website in early September. The only public trace of its return appeared weeks later, in an update to the Lost Art Database in Germany."

"The museum has not disclosed what new evidence the family claiming ownership of the painting presented, or why this case was handled privately, when a previous restitution in 2014 was highly publicised by the museum. Any time a painting is restituted to a family who had to part with it because of the Nazi regime, I think it's a good thing, Schulman told Guardian Australia."

The National Gallery of Victoria returned Lady with a Fan by Gerard ter Borch to descendants who lost it during the Nazi era. The painting was removed from the NGV website in September. Weeks later the only public record of the return appeared as an update to the Lost Art Database in Germany. The museum declined to answer key questions about the restitution decision. Researcher Jason Schulman challenged the museum's private handling after investigating the painting's provenance. Descendants of German-Swiss businessman Max Emden laid claim in the early 2000s based on family memory and an NGV provenance listing. The case involved a long-running dispute between two branches of the same family.

Read at www.theguardian.com