Amsterdam Museum to Return Matisse Painting Sold Under Force During WWII
The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam will return a painting by Henri Matisse, which has been part of its collection since 1941, to the heirs of its original owner, a German Jewish textile manufacturer and patron of the arts who sold it to finance his family's escape from Nazi occupation Holland .
The museum announced on Tuesday it was returning the artwork, titled “Odalisque,” following “binding advice” from the Dutch Restitution Commission, a government body that handles cases of artworks looted by the Nazis.
The heirs described the decision as symbolic justice. "Matisse made the same journey from Berlin to Amsterdam as our grandparents," they said. "But she remained there, in the Stedelijk, with almost no recognition of her provenance for 80 years."
Before World War II, Matisse's “Odalis...