Matisse masterpiece to be returned to heirs of Jewish family who fled Nazi Germany
A painting by French artist Henri Matisse is to be reunited to the heirs of the German-Jewish family who were forced to sell it after escaping Nazi Germany. The Commission for Looted Art in Europe found that Matisse’s Odalisque (1920-1921) was sold out of ‘necessity’ by the German-Jewish Stern family, as a consequence of the persecution they experienced in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. The investigation findings were ratified by the Dutch Committee of Restitution. Amsterdam’s Stedeliijk Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and Design, which has held the painting in its collection since 1941, has a...