Art Institute of Chicago to Return Seized Metzinger Painting

The Art Institute of Chicago will return an early 20th-century Cubist painting to the family of its former Jewish owner. The museum concluded that Jean Metzinger's 1913 work, Woman With a Fan, was subject to a forced sale under Nazi influence during World War II.

Jacques Schuhmacher, the executive director of the museum's provenance research department, stated the decision reflects a commitment to act when new research clarifies a work's history. The return process is now underway.

Uncovering a Hidden History

For decades, the painting's wartime provenance was unclear. New research, led by an infrared analysis of the painting's back, provided the breakthrough. Historians identified a faint name written in pencil: Paul Citroen, an early 20th-century art dealer.

This discovery crystallized the artwork's early trajectory. Citroen acquired the piece from Metzinger's gallery in 1919. He sold it in 1928 to his cousin, Emanuel Lewenstein, a Jewish art collector and director of a sewing machine company. Though Lewenstein died in 1930, his collection remained with his wife and children.

The Forced Wartime Sale

The Nazis invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, where the painting was part of the Lewenstein family collection. Just three months later, in August 1940, the work was sold. It was among more than 150 artworks auctioned at the Frederik Muller auction house in Amsterdam.

The sale included pieces from the famous Goudstikker collection and items on loan to the Stedelijk Museum. The Mondex Corporation, a firm specializing in Holocaust-era art restitution, notes that it remains unknown who brought the Lewenstein collection to that auction or who received the proceeds.

Jacques Schuhmacher told the Art Newspaper that in the absence of contrary evidence, the sale must be viewed as a result of Nazi persecution. "It was either confiscated or sold under pressure," he said.

The Painting's Journey to Chicago

After the 1940 auction, the painting's location was lost until the mid-1950s. The Art Institute of Chicago purchased it from a New York gallery in 1959. It has hung in the museum ever since, aside from a traveling exhibition to Iowa and Texas in 1985 and 1986.

The museum houses one of the world's largest art provenance research departments. Its investigation into the Metzinger work stands in contrast to another ongoing case.

A Contrasting Case at the Museum

The decision on the Metzinger painting emerges as the fate of another artwork is contested in court. That piece is Egon Schiele's 1916 drawing Russian War Prisoner, which was seized by investigators in 2023 but permitted to stay at the museum. Officials believe it was stolen by Nazis.

The Art Institute has refuted those claims. Last week, an appellate court sided with the museum, ruling the seizure was improper. In a statement, the museum expressed confidence in its research, indicating very different facts for each work.

Evidence shows the Metzinger was seized and forcibly sold, the museum said. For the Schiele drawing, evidence indicates it was never seized, stayed within the family, and was sold by them more than a decade after the war.