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A leading art museum in Switzerland, the Kunsthaus Zurich, has announced the removal of five paintings from its exhibition for investigation into whether they were looted by the Nazis. These artworks are part of the Emil Bührle Collection, which includes pieces by renowned artists such as Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh. The collection is named after Emil Bührle, a German-born arms dealer who profited during World War II by supplying weapons to the Nazis.

The investigation follows the release of new guidelines to address the restitution of cultural artifacts that were never returned to their rightful owners after being stolen during the Nazi era. The paintings under scrutiny are Monet’s “Jardin de Monet à Giverny,” Gustave Courbet’s “Portrait of the Sculptor Louis-Joseph,” Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s “Georges-Henri Manuel,” Vincent van Gogh’s “The Old Tower,” and Paul Gauguin’s “La route montante.”

The Emil Bührle Collection foundation board stated its commitment to finding a fair solution with the legal successors of the original owners, adhering to best practices. Another painting, “La Sultane” by Edouard Manet, is also under examination but will be handled separately as the foundation does not believe the new guidelines apply to it. The foundation has expressed willingness to offer financial compensation to the estate of Max Silberberg, the former owner, who was a German Jewish industrialist. Silberberg’s extensive art collection was sold under duress by the Nazis, and he is believed to have been murdered at Auschwitz.

Earlier this year, more than 20 countries, including Switzerland, adopted new best practices from the US State Department for handling Nazi-looted art. These guidelines were introduced on the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Washington Conference Principles, which aim to facilitate the restitution of stolen or forcibly sold items. These principles are crucial for families seeking to recover looted art, as Swiss law prevents legal claims for restitution or compensation for works from the Bührle collection due to statutes of limitations.

Stuart Eizenstat, the US Secretary of State’s special advisor on Holocaust issues, highlighted that an estimated 100,000 out of 600,000 stolen paintings, along with many books, manuscripts, religious items, and other cultural objects, have not been returned. Up to his death in 1956, Bührle amassed around 600 artworks, many of which are managed by the Bührle Foundation and have been on loan to the Kunsthaus Zurich. Other pieces remain with Bührle’s descendants.

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A devastating fire has ravaged the majority of Abkhazia’s art collection in the National Art Gallery in Sukhumi, the capital of the breakaway region controlled by Russia. The blaze, which destroyed over 4,000 paintings, is suspected to have originated from an electrical short circuit in the early 20th-century wooden building that housed the valuable collection. Among the lost artworks were 300 pieces by the renowned artist and stage designer Alexander Chachba-Shervashidze. The gallery’s director, Suram Sakanya, lamented the irreparable loss, emphasizing that the collection had withstood Abkhazia’s civil war with Georgia in the 1990s.

Local artists had long advocated for a more suitable storage location, and a video before the fire revealed cramped rooms with insufficient protection for the paintings. Abkhazia, receiving support from Moscow, is situated in the north-western corner of Georgia and shares a border with Russia. Despite the region’s declaration of independence in 1999 after a war of secession with Georgia, it lacks widespread international recognition. Following the Georgian-Russian war in 2008, Moscow recognized Abkhazia as an independent state, while Georgia contends that Russia occupies the region.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili expressed sorrow over the tragedy, attributing it to the neglect of cultural identity by both the de facto leadership and Russian occupants. Russia has pledged to dispatch specialists to Sukhumi to aid in the restoration of the surviving 150 paintings rescued from the fire.

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