Article: Bellotto Restitution Claims
August 18 2021
Picture: Museum of Fine Arts Houston
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The New York Times have published an article providing a rather fascinating summary of the ongoing restitution disagreement between the Monuments Men Foundation and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. The piece goes into further detail about whether Bellotto's The Market Place at Pirna was sold under duress or not.
The Monuments Men Foundation claim, supported by a report from the German Advisory Commission, that its former owner Max Emden "was not undertaken voluntarily but was entirely due to worsening economic hardship.”
The Houston Museum's lawyers and director Gary Tinterow have disagreed, explaining that American institutions are not bound by the same standards as European institutions. Tinterow is quoted saying that the sale “was initiated by Dr. Emden, as a Swiss citizen, with the painting under his control at his villa in Switzerland, and concluded by him voluntarily.”
