Nazi-looted painting to be returned by Cambridge University museum to heirs of Jewish owner

The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge said it would return a painting looted by Nazis from its Jewish owner to the man's descendants.
The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge said it would return a painting looted by Nazis from its Jewish owner to the man's descendants. Credit: ITV News Anglia / Fitzwilliam Museum

A painting stolen by the Nazis from its Jewish owner will be returned to his descendants by a University of Cambridge museum.

The oil landscape, by French realist Gustave Courbet, was seized from Robert Bing's Paris apartment in occupied France in 1941.

Now held at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the 1862 work was looted by a German taskforce called the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) and was earmarked for the personal collection of Hermann Goering.

In a 19-page report, a government panel, made up of judges and historians who investigate claims for Nazi loot, recommended the museum should give La Ronde Enfantine back to Mr Bing's family.

A spokesperson for the Fitzwilliam confirmed it would follow the recommendations.

During their investigation, the panel found "no other reason" for the seizure other than because the owner was Jewish.

"This is a deliberate seizure by the German authorities from a Jewish citizen of France with the diversion of the work of art to Nazi leaders," the report reads.

"No other reason for seizure other than the Jewishness of Mr Bing has appeared to explain this seizure."

Goering, who commanded the Luftwaffe, at one point offered to swap the painting with Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler's foreign minister, only for the deal to fall through because either von Ribbentrop or his wife "disliked the work".

The Fitzwilliam suggested to the investigation that at the end of the war Allied soldiers found the painting hidden in secret tunnels near the Nazi elite's retreat at Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, though this is disputed by Mr Bing's descendants.

The trail then runs cold until 1951, when now-defunct London art dealer Arthur Tooth and Sons acquired the painting from Kurt Meissner - a Swiss dealer suspected by American authorities of looting.

It was purchased that year by the Very Rev Eric Milner-White, Dean of York, who in turn donated it to the Fitzwilliam, where it has remained ever since as part of its collection of 2,000 paintings.

It is currently in storage and not on display.

In its conclusion, the panel said: "This recommendation implies no criticism of the museum or the original donor, the Very Reverend Eric Milner-White, who have acted honourably and in accordance with the standards prevailing at the time of acquisition and since.

"The museum has cared for the work so that it can now be restored to the heirs of the original owners."

The painting's value is not known but a number of Courbet's works have sold at auction for six-figure sums.

Last year, the Horniman Museum agreed to return ownership of 72 treasured artefacts to Nigeria, including its Benin Bronzes, Credit: Cambridge University

In 2022, the University of Cambridge announced it would return more than 100 looted Benin bronzes to Nigeria.

The 116 artefacts were taken by British armed forces during the sacking of Benin City in 1897 and have since been in museums in the UK, Europe and US.

And earlier this month, it was confirmed four Aboriginal spears brought to England by explorer Captain James Cook would be returned to Australia following a formal repatriation request in December.

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