MDA UK receives renaissance sculpture looted by Nazis during World War II
The sculpture was originally owned Harry Fuld Sr., a German Jewish entrepreneur who had an extensive modern art collection until his death in 1932.
Magen David Adom UK has received a valuable renaissance sculpture looted by the Nazis during World War II after decades of research tracked down the legal owner.
The sculpture was handed to MDA UK at a restitution ceremony held at the French Ministry of Culture in Parison on Yom Hashoah.
The sculpture, La Vierge de Pitié, from the year 1495/1500, was originally owned Harry Fuld Senior, a German Jewish entrepreneur who had an extensive modern art collection until his death in 1932.
His sons, Peter and Harry and the latter’s widow inherited their father’s art collection after he passed away. But after the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Harry’s sons fled Germany, whereafter the Nazi regime confiscated the family’s art collection.
Following World War II, the sculpture was recovered and brought to Louvre in Paris where it remained since.
It was eventually discovered that Harry Fuld Junior willed his entire estate to his housekeeper, Gisela Martin, after he died in 1963. Martin later willed these holdings to MDA UK.
“It is fitting that today, on Yom Hashoah, a piece of art stolen by the Nazis was returned to support Israel’s only national medical emergency and blood service and will, in turn, be responsible for saving more lives. Out of the darkness from that period of history, comes some light that will now be able to make a positive impact on the lives of those in Israel,” MDA UK Chief Executive Daniel Burger said at the ceremony.
MDA UK said in a statement that the renaissance sculpture will be auctioned off by Christie’s on behalf of MDA UK, “and the money will be used towards the life-saving services provided by the MDA in Israel.”
“Even long after the passing of Harry Fuld Junior, his expansive art collection is slowly being restituted to the benefit of Magen David Adom UK and the saving of lives in Israel and across the globe,” it added.
French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malik, told the audience at the ceremony that this was the second time a piece of art had been restituted tot he MDA in the ministry’s building.
The first piece handed to MDA UK was a painting by Henri Matisse from 1898 named Le Mur Rose (Paysage, le mur rose; Landscape, the Pink Wall) at a ceremony in 2008.
The painting was recovered by the French police which found a cache of stored art near Nazi SS Officer Kurt Gerstein’s home in Germany. It now hangs in the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt.
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