80 Years Later, Kandinsky Painting Returned to Rightful Owners

A Wassily Kandinsky painting sold by a Jewish couple as they fled the Netherlands during the World War II Nazi invasion has now been returned to the couple's heirs. The Russian artist's "Painting With Houses," a 1909 work, had been held in Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum since 1940 when the museum director acquired it for the city of Amsterdam at auction, the New York Times reports. "As a city, we bear a great responsibility for dealing with the indescribable suffering and injustice inflicted on the Jewish population in the Second World War," a deputy mayor of Amsterdam says in a statement. "To the extent that anything can be restored, we as a society have a moral duty to act accordingly."

The heirs of Robert Lewenstein and Irma Klein have been working to see the painting returned for years; though the museum previously acknowledged the sale may have been "involuntary," it argued that it should be allowed to keep it—and the Dutch Restitutions Commission decided in its favor in 2018, noting that while the claimant, Klein's heir, "has no special bond with" the work, it held "a significant place" in the museum's collection. A Dutch court upheld that decision, but the heirs came together to appeal the ruling last year, Artnet reported at the time. Last summer, the mayor of Amsterdam began discussions to return the painting to the family, and the City Council ultimately approved the decision. (More Amsterdam stories.)