the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena (CA) hopes to keep in his collection diptych by Lucas Cranach the Elder's "Adam and eve", however, Judge Los Angeles County last week gave the Museum to reject the claim from the heiress and the main contender for this diptych maray von Sacher (Marei von Saher).

It comes to restorative dispute that began in 2007, when maray von Sacher-law, a large Dutch collector-Jew Jacques Gaudstikkera (Jacques Goudstikker), first applied to restorative claim in a U.S. court, demanding the return of her diptych Cranach@

History collection Gaudstikkera directly related to the illegal activities of the Nazis. When the dealer with my family fled Amsterdam in 1940, his collection was requisitioned by Hermann Goering (Hermann Goering). The Gaudstikkera died during the voyage to the shores of America. After the war the collection was returned to the Dutch government, which, in turn, began to search for pre-war owners. In 2006 maray von Sacher Dutch government was returned 200 works from the collection of her father-in-law. However, the Cranach diptych at that time for several decades in the collection of California musea@

Restitution diptych was significantly complicated by the fact that the original owner was not Jewish dealer, a family of Russian aristocrats Stroganoff-scherbatovy. The Bolsheviks seized from them, "Adam and eve" and sold a diptych on the Soviet-German auction in Berlin in 1931. It is at these auctions work Cranach acquired Gaudstikkera. In the end, after the war, in the 1960s, the Netherlands has sold a diptych not the heirs of Gaudstikkera, and the American George Stroganov-Mr. Shcherbatov, thereby, in their view, restoring justice. And Shcherbatov in 1971 resold the diptych the founder of the Museum in Pasadena Norton Simon (Norton Simon). Since then, diptych, written on two boards about 1530, was kept in the collection of the California musea@

However, all these events did not stop the plaintiff, maray von Sacher. Over the years, the case was twice passed from customary court of appeal and back. This time the Norton Simon Museum tried to dismiss based on expiration of Statute of limitations case. The fact that a formal request to the Dutch government about the return of the Cranach diptych for over half a century by the widow of Gaudstikkera and other relatives and not received. And this fact has allowed the Museum to assert that the sale of a diptych Mr. Shcherbatov-Stroganov, as well as its further resale to the Norton Simon were zakonnymi@

Judge John Walter, however, sided with the plaintiff. In an 11-page opinion in the case, the judge suggested that focus on the specific facts of existence in the twentieth century, and not on the legal restrictions associated with the lapse of time or the constitutional inconsistencies around which revolved all the previous proceedings godi@

So that the Museum seems to not be able to avoid trial for the diptych, in 2006, estimated at 28 million dollarov@

Material was prepared by Maria Onuchin, AI

Источники: latimes.com, reuters.com, artinvestment.ru