17th century painting looted by Nazis from Jewish art collector to be returned by Tate Britain

A painting from the 17th-century yellow looted by Nazis from the house of a Jewish Belgian art collector is returned to his family by Tate Britain.

The Spoliation advisory panel recommended the return of Henry Gibbs’s 1654 work, Aeneas and his family flee Burning TroyFrom Tate Britain to the heirs of Samuel Hartveld.

The panel, which investigates claims for Nazi-Loot art in British public collections, considers the painting “looted as an act of race persecution.”

Hartveld, a Belgian art collector, left the painting behind when he and his wife fled against Antwerp in May 1940 to escape the German occupation.

Although Hartveld survived the war, he never restored his art collection, many of which were presumably distributed under European galleries.

The return of the painting is an important victory for the great -grandchildren of Hartveld, who now intends to receive their ancestor’s lost works of art.

Open image in gallery

The Gibbs painting was purchased in 1994 from the Art Gallery Galerie Jan de Maere in Brussels through the Tate collection, after Rene van den Broeck the collection and home of Mr. Hartveld bought for a ‘declining amount’, the panel said.

In May 2024, the Sonia Klein Trust, founded by the heirs of Mr. Hartveld, launched a claim.

In a statement, the trustees said they were “deeply grateful” by the decision to return it.

“This decision clearly acknowledges the horrible Nazi persecution of Samuel Hartveld and that the ‘clearly looted’ painting belonged to Mr Hartveld, a Jewish Belgian art collector and trader,” they added.

“The trustees who act for the Sonia Klein Trust thank the staff at Tate Britain for working with the trustees and their legal representative, Dr Hannes Hartung, to realize the return of this important painting by a highly regarded British painter.

“The staff of Tate Britain were openly and quickly in their approval of the recommendation of the advisory panel advisory panel advisory.”

Open image in gallery

They also said the “trustees who act for the Sonia Klein Trust -honor and remember the life of Samuel Hartveld and his family”.

The Sonia Klein Trust was started in 1986 by Sonia Klein, who was previously named in a will as the daughter of Mr. Hartveld’s widow, Clara, who passed away in 1951.

Ms Klein’s daughter Eliana died before her death and her grandchildren Barbara, Daniel and Mark Fleersheimer are called trustees.

Director of Tate, Maria Balshaw, said: “It is a profound privilege to reunite this work with its rightful heirs, and I am delighted to see that the spoliation process works successfully to make this happen.

‘Although the origin of the artwork was investigated in detail when it was acquired in 1994, important facts regarding the previous ownership of the painting were not known.

‘I would like to thank the Sonia Klein Trust and the Spoliation Advisory Panel for their cooperation over the past year. We are now looking forward to welcoming the family in the coming months and submitting the painting to them. ‘

The Pilotiation advisory panel said the “legal and moral claims to restitution” for the heirs of someone “forced to flee from his homeland, leaving his property, books and art collection, is obvious”, and it is recommended that it be returned.

Art Minister Sir Chris Bryant praised the panel for “helping to reunite families with their most precious possessions looted by the Nazis.”

“The decision to return the painting to the heirs of Samuel Hartveld and his wife is absolutely the right decision, which I welcome wholeheartedly,” he added.

The painting, which is not displayed by the tate, is believed to be a commentary on the English civil war in captivity.

It depicts scenes from the Latin poem The Aeneid, and tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans.

The Independent Spoliation Advisory Panel, which began in 2000, received 23 claims, with 14 works returned to the heirs of their former owners.

The Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) ACT 2009 enables national museums to return cultural objects, with the recommendation of the panels and the agreement of the Minister of Arts.