Five paintings, including works by Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh, are no longer on display at one of Switzerland’s leading art museums, thanks to fears they may have been looted by Nazis.
The Kunsthaus Zurich Museum has placed Monet’s “Jardin de Monet à Giverny” along with van Gogh’s “The Old Tower,” Gauguin’s “La route montante” and two other paintings, “Portrait of the Sculptor Louis-Joseph” by Gustave Courbet and “Georges-Henri Manuel” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in storage as the investigation proceeds.
Suspicions have long endured about how the works came into the possession of Emil Bührle, a German-born arms dealer who built his fortune by selling weapons to the Nazis during World War II.
The removal of the paintings comes after new guidelines were issued regarding the return of artworks to the families that originally owned them.
The Emil Buhrle Collection foundation’s board said in a statement it was “committed to seeking a fair and equitable solution for these works with the legal successors of the former owners, following best practices,” the BBC reported.
“La Sultane” by Edouard Manet remains on display, but may also have questionable origins. It was previously owned by Max Silberberg.
Silberberg was a German Jewish industrialist who was forced by the Nazis to sell his art. It is thought he was later murdered at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp during the Holocaust.
“Due to the overall historical circumstances relating to the sale, the foundation is prepared to offer a financial contribution to the estate of Max Silberberg in respect to the tragic destiny of the former owner,” it said.
