{"id":306784,"date":"2025-11-25T02:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T02:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/306784\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T02:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T02:07:08","slug":"msk-ghent-declines-to-return-nazi-looted-painting-citing-compensation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/306784\/","title":{"rendered":"MSK Ghent Declines to Return Nazi-Looted Painting, Citing Compensation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Museum of Fine Arts (MSK)<\/a> in Ghent has declined to restitute Gaspar de Craye\u2019s Nazi-looted Portrait of Bishop Triest, saying that the painting\u2019s original owner and heirs were previously compensated. Jewish groups in Belgium, however, continue to demand further compensation, fueling controversy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to the Dutch-language press, Ghent appointed an independent commission a year ago to investigate the origins of the Portrait of Bishop Triest. The commission ultimately concluded that the work had been sold by the Antwerp art dealer Samuel Hartveld under duress following the German occupation of Belgium in 1940. Two years later, the Germans reportedly sold it to an Antwerp restorer, who then sold it to the city in 1948, shortly after the end of World War II. Crucially, researchers discovered that Ghent later provided financial compensation to Hartveld and his family for their losses. That fact underpins MSK\u2019s present position that the painting should stay in its collection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"GoFundMe's<\/p>\n

\n\tMSK did not reply to ARTnews\u2019s request for comment. <\/p>\n

\n\tHartveld\u2019s heirs, supported by local Jewish advocacy groups, are contesting the decision, pointing to a statement in the provenance committee\u2019s findings that, \u201cit is highly doubtful whether Hartveld actually received the total purchase price (of 200,000 francs, ed.),\u201d as first reported by De Standaard<\/a>. The article added that the committee\u2019s belief that Hartveld had been compensated rose from its view that he and the restorer, Ren\u00e9 Van de Broek, likely held paintings in \u201cjoint management.\u201d This, the committee stated, created \u201cthe factual presumption\u201d that Hartveld \u201cmust have believed that he had been sufficiently compensated,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the committee recommended against compensating Hartveld\u2019s heirs, it did call for \u201cmoral redress\u201d by acknowledging \u201cthe unacceptable act of spoliation\u201d in any publication and exhibitions involving the painting.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe two Jewish groups, EJA and JID, argued in their appeal for restitution that \u201cInternational standards (the Washington Principles and the Terezin Declaration) are clear: when spoliation is established, restitution must follow, regardless of any alleged later payments.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn practice, however, establishing spoliation does not automatically dictate restitution under Belgian law or the broader international framework governing Nazi-looted art. The Washington Principles and the Terezin Declaration, while widely followed, are non-binding and urge for \u201cjust and fair solutions\u201d when Nazi spoliation is determined\u2014an umbrella term that spans both financial settlements and alternatives like restitution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHartveld\u2019s heirs had previously filed a claim with Tate Britain<\/a> in London over the artwork Aeneas Fleeing Burning Troy with His Family by Henry Gibbs, which also belonged to the collection seized by the Germans in Antwerp in 1940.\u00a0The Tate later agreed to return the painting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) in Ghent has declined to restitute Gaspar de Craye\u2019s Nazi-looted Portrait of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134,174640],"class_list":["post-306784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-the-museum-of-fine-arts-msk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}