After reaching a settlement, the Kunsthaus Zurich will put a Claude Monet painting in its collection up for sale. The museum reached a settlement with the heirs of Jewish textile manufacturer Carl Sachs, who fled Nazi Germany to Switzerland in 1939.
Monet’s L’homme a l’ombrelle (Man with Umbrella), 1865/67, depicts a man holding an umbrella walking through a forested area with a dog at his side.
Sachs, with his wife Margarete, were considered important art patrons in their hometown of Breslau, or present-day Wroclaw, Poland. The pair sent some of their collection, among them, the Monet, in 1934, as a loan to the Kunsthaus Zurich, in advance of their move to Switzerland.
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When the couple left Germany, however, they were only allowed to take with them 10 Reichsmarks each. Mere weeks after arriving in Switzerland, this Monet was the first painting Sachs sold, according to a museum press release. Prior to his death in 1943, Carl sold 13 total paintings in Switzerland.
“A sale at short notice was necessary to secure the livelihood of the Sachs couple, making this a duress situation,” the museum stated in the same release.
“The heirs of the Sachs family welcome the willingness of the Zurich Kunstgesellschaft (the trustees of the Kunsthaus) to find a fair and just solution for this work that Carl Sachs was forced to sell after emigrating to Switzerland,” Imke Gielen, the Berlin lawyer who represents the Sachs heirs, told the Art Newspaper.
Though it is still unclear where and when the painting will be sold, the museum’s portion of the share cannot be used towards its deficit. Revenue generated from sales must be reinvested into the collection, Icom rules dictate.
The institution’s operating debt increased this year to 4.46 million CHF ($5 million), as a result of the new extension that opened in 2021.
Historically, works sold by Jewish collectors after fleeing Nazi persecution have not been treated as cases for restitution in Switzerland.
Update, Friday, June 21, 2:54pm EST: On Thursday, six paintings from the Bührle collection were also removed by the Kunsthaus Zurich. The case concerns paintings—including works by Claude Monet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vincent van Gogh—owned by Jewish collectors, Monopol reported.