Descendants of a Jewish gallery owner who left a precious painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) during his escape from the Nazis in 1938 have accused Sotheby’s of providing a misleading story ahead of an auction four years ago. In 2019 Sotheby’s stated in a statement that it did not know the history of ownership of the painting «San Francesco di Paola holding a rosary, a book and a stick», which Tiepolo executed around 1730. The auction catalog stated only that it came from from a “distinguished private collection” and which had formerly been owned by the Galerie Wolfgang Böhler in Bensheim, Germany. But a writ filed last Friday in the New York State Supreme Court argues that the painting actually passed through the hands of Julius Böhler, a Munich antiques dealer who in 1946 was accused by the US government of being “involved in looting of works of art.
The three heirs of the Austrian gallery owner Otto Fröhlich declared in the complaint that Sotheby’s would have intentionally obscured the true provenance of Tiepolo’s work to encourage the sale, “thus perpetuating the cycle of injustice and exploitation that began in 1938”, then disregarding the laws and international and national return policies.
Sotheby’s denied the allegations, telling the New York Times that the 2019 provenance attribution was a “human error.” In a statement, the auction house said it had ordered a new provenance search after being contacted by Fröhlich’s heirs and, in the course of its internal investigation, identified the painting’s original owner who faced Nazi persecution in Adele Fischel. Under international law, Fischel’s descendants may have grounds to claim ownership of the painting. Sotheby’s added in its statement that it is “committed to reaching a just and amicable solution in the return of this work to its rightful heirs”, however “further research and evidence is needed to ascertain who should be the correct claimant in this case, with current evidence supporting a possible claim by Fischel’s heirs.”
In the 2019 Sotheby’s catalog, the painting was valued at between $70,000 and $100,000. The New York Times reported that documents held by the United States Holocaust Museum state that a Viennese woman named Adele Fischel was deported to the Theresienstadt camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, where she was killed.
According to Fröhlich’s heirs, their ancestor bought the Tiepolo in 1938 from Fischel, who according to the writ presented by Fröhlich’s heirs was bought “in good faith” and was not looted. However, they argue that circumstances “forced” Fröhlich to transfer Tiepolo to another gallery before fleeing Vienna for Britain. Were it not for Nazi persecution, Fröhlich would not have closed his gallery or sold the painting for far below its market value, according to documentation. Furthermore, documents compiled by the heirs show that Fröhlich allegedly attempted to recover the painting after the war. Fröhlich’s heirs have asked Sotheby’s to disclose the names of the parties involved in the 2019 sale, which is usually against the auction house’s policy.