[MSN] American files suit demanding German museum return art stolen by Nazis

[MSN]

American files suit demanding German museum return art stolen by Nazis

Jewish man seeking return of 1932 Marlene Dietrich poster, other rare works
that were seized by the Gestapo and are now in possession of German
Historical Museum

Associated Press
Published: 	03.05.08, 09:27 / Israel Jewish Scene

BERLIN - An American Jewish man filed a lawsuit Monday demanding the return
of a rare poster in the collection of a Berlin museum that the Nazis stole
from his father.
Peter Sachs, 70, is seeking the return of the 1932 poster "Die Blonde Venus"
- The Blonde Venus - produced to promote the film of the same name starring
Marlene Dietrich.
The poster is worth an estimated $20,475, but Sachs hopes if he wins the
suit, it will set a precedent for the return of some 4,300 works collected
by his father that are now in the possession of the German Historical Museum
and worth far more. 

The value of the full collection has been estimated at between $20 million
and $60 million, depending upon its condition, said Sachs' lawyer, Gary
Osen.
"Win or lose, I owe it to my father to try, just as he did, to recover his
life's work and lifelong passion," Sachs said in a statement.
He faces an uphill battle, however. A German restitution panel, known as the
Limbach Commission, ruled last year that the museum was the rightful owner
of the poster collection.

  
'Powerful rebuke'

Museum spokesman Rudolf Trabold said the suit, filed with the Berlin state
court, was a "curious" move by Sachs, given the panel's decision.
"It is very odd that he suddenly doesn't accept it any more," Trabold said. 

But Osen, who is based in New Jersey, said the commission's decision went
against a general commitment by the German government to return looted art,
and that he hoped the lawsuit would help set things straight.
"The return of The Blonde Venus' would ... be a powerful rebuke to the
German Historical Museum and an affirmation of Germany's long-standing
commitment to return stolen works of art to the heirs of Nazi victims," he
said.
Sachs was only a year old in 1938 when his father's collection of 12,500
posters was seized and his family fled Germany for the United States.

His father, Hans Sachs, died in 1974. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the
German Historical Museum inherited what remained of the collection from its
East German counterpart in 1990. 

The rare posters include elaborate advertisements for cabarets and consumer
products, as well as political propaganda. 

In ruling against returning the collection to Peter Sachs, the Limbach
Commission cited a letter from Hans Sachs and a 1960s-era compensation
payment of 225,000 German marks (approximately $50,000 at the time) from the
West German government as grounds for keeping them in Germany.

In the letter to a West German friend, dated 1966, Hans Sachs said he viewed
the payment as appropriate compensation.  

But Peter Sachs, of Sarasota, Fla., had argued that the compensation was
paid when it was assumed the collection was destroyed in the war, and that
once his father found out that part of it had survived, he started trying to
get access to it in the East German museum where it ended up.  

Since the decision was made, there have been no developments that would
alter the facts of the case in any way, Trabold said. 

"All of the arguments that were before the Limbach Commission have not
changed," he said.  

It is not yet clear when the court would decide whether to hear the case.

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