Germany returns art to dealer’s heirs

The German state of Bavaria has returned an anonymous 15th century Christian painting to the descendants of a Jewish art dealer whose possessions were seized by the Nazis in the 1930s.

The depiction of Saint Florian of Lorch, which was restituted to the heirs of A. S. Drey, was originally painted on a wooden panel in about 1480 to hang above a church altar. 

Drey owned galleries in Munich, London and New York but, in 1935, the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts told art dealers the Munich National Art Gallery would be dissolved and that they would be hit by huge tax bills. Historians say this forced the dealers to effectively concede their paintings.

The work, which had been on display at the Burghausen gallery since 1974, was returned by the Bavarian State Painting Collections.