Art Gallery of Ontario Restitutes Jan van Kessell
November 23 2020
Picture: AGO
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada, has announced that it has returned a still life by Jan van Kessel the Elder (pictured).
Earlier this year the gallery was contacted by the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, who had traced the pre-war provenance to Dagobert and Martha David of Dusseldorf. After having escaped from Germany, the had later sold the work under duress during the German occupation of Belgium. The painting had eventually ended up with dealers Wildenstein & Co in London before being purchased by the ancestors of Mr & Mrs Henry F Davis who gifted the work in 1995.
