[MSN] HEIRS OF CURT GLASER REACT TO DECISION OF THE BASEL CITY COUNSEL DENYING THE RETURN NAZI LOOTED ART

[MSN]

February 20, 2008

For immediate release:


HEIRS OF CURT GLASER REACT TO DECISION OF THE BASEL CITY COUNSEL DENYING THE
RETURN NAZI LOOTED ARTWORKS

(New York, New York, February 20, 2008) The heirs of Curt Glaser reacted
today to a decision by the Basel City Counsel not to return artworks sold in
a May, 1933 auction by Curt Glaser after he was forced out of his position
as Director of the Berlin State Art Library by the Nazis because he was
Jewish. The decision follows a decision by the City of Hannover last year to
return a Corinth painting lost by Glaser in another May 1933 auction held
under similar circumstances.

The Hannover decision is a clear precedent which the Basel City Counsel
chose ignore. Following the Nazis rise to power in January 1933, they
started a program of harassment of Jews and intellectuals who opposed them
such as Curt Glaser, Thomas Mann, George Grosz and others. In their early
years in power, the Nazis staged book burnings, boycotts of Jewish business
and detentions of their opponents in detention camps as a way of "cleansing"
German society of its Nazi opposition. As a result approximately 35,000 of
Germany's elite intellectuals left Germany in the first few months of the
Nazi regime.

Glaser, who was forced out of his apartment in the Prinz Albrecht Str. in
Berlin to make way for the GESTAPO, who had decided to make the building its
headquarters, was among was one of the early refugees who decided to leave
Germany. It is thought that he was in fact warned that it was no longer safe
for him to stay in Nazi Germany, since he had been singled out due to his
prominent position as a Nazi opponent and leading intellectual figure in
Germany.

Curt Glaser died in New York in 1943. Following WWII, his heirs filed claims
in Germany for the loss of his art collection in the May, 1933 sales. The
German claims office found that Glaser had lost his art collection due to
Nazi persecution and awarded a small settlement to his widow Maria Glaser
Ash. Under German restitution policies such awards are not an impediment to
the return of the lost artworks, but should be paid back when the actual
artworks are located and recovered.          
    
At the Washington Conference on Holocaust Looted Assets in 1998, 44
countries, including Switzerland agreed to return Nazi looted art to its
former owners when such art was found to be located in their public museums.
The Glaser heirs filed claims with the City of Basel in 2004 for the return
of over 100 artworks which had been purchased by Basel in the May, 1933
auctions. Most of these artworks consisted of lithographs, water colors and
drawings by such prominent artists as Edvard Munch, Max Beckmann, Max
Liebermann, Lovis Corinth, Max Slevogt, Honore Daumier, and Adolf Menzel.
Glaser knew most of these artists personally and collected and wrote about
their artworks.

Under the principles of the Washington Conference, its signatory members are
obliged to review their collections for Nazi looted art and reach "fair and
just" solutions with their prior owners or their heirs. The period covered
by the Washington Conference is the entire duration of the Nazi regime which
spans from January 30, 1933 to May 8, 1945. Sales of Jewish property in Nazi
Germany during this time period are considered to be under duress,
especially when such sales occured in facilitation of the sellers flight out
of Germany in order to escape further persecution. Curt Glaser was forced
out of his position as Director of the Berlin State Art Library due to a law
enacted by the Nazis in April, 1933 which forbade Jews from holding German
civil servant positions.

In denying the Glaser claims, the Basel City officials said that the
Washington Conference did not apply to the Glaser claims and that the case
differed from the case where Hannover returned a painting by Lovis Corinth
to the Glaser heirs. However, in fact the cases are identical, except for a
difference of one week with respect to the auction dates. In contrast to
Basel, the City of Hannover found that the Glaser claims fell within the
Nazi period and thus the Washington Conference was applicable.  It therefore
applied the principles of the Washington Conference that a "just and fair"
solution should be found,  in reaching its decision to return the Corinth
painting.                              

Following the 1998 Washington Conference, the Basel Art Museums signed a
declaration that they would adhere to the principles of the Washington
Conference. The Basel decision thus flies in the face of the precedent of
the Hannover decision and brings into question Basel's commitment to the
Washington Conference and its principles.


Rowland & Associates            Schink & Studzinski
New York, New York, USA      Berlin, Germany
      

For further information contact:

David J. Rowland, Esq.
Rowland & Associates
Two Park Ave., 19nth Floor
New York, N.Y.  10016
USA

Tel. 212-685-5509
Fax  212-685-8862