Max Stern
For those of you who do not know, Max Stern was a Jewish art dealer in Nazi Germany who was forced to liquidate his holdings (hundreds of works) in 1937. In 2002, Concordia, McGill and Hebrew Universities established the Max Stern Art Restitution Project to find and recover approximately 400 works … to date, only 16 have been recovered.
An exhibition, “Max Stern — From Düsseldorf to Montreal,” which was set to open in Düsseldorf this February and then travel to Haifa and Montreal, was abruptly cancelled by the Mayor once he learned that included would be a list of all the works still ‘missing’ … some of which are in German museums. Catherine Hickley’s article in The New York Times states that in a statement the mayor’s office said “countless works are linked to the art dealer Max Stern” and “every work requires a nuanced individual analysis.” It argued that the exhibition in the Stadtmuseum, which is operated by the city, could not address these complex issues.
It is time these museums surrender their ill gotten gains and return them to their rightful owners! The battle for justice continues.
Source: Why Did Düsseldorf Cancel an Art Show Honoring a Victim of the Nazis? – The New York Times