Museum to return Matisse looted by Goering

A Norwegian museum has agreed to return a Matisse once looted by Hermann Goering to the family of Jewish art dealer Paul Rosenberg.

The 1937 painting, Woman In Blue In Front Of A Fireplace, has been among the highlights of the Henie Onstad Art Centre near Oslo since the museum was established in 1968 through a donation by shipping magnate Niels Onstad and his wife, Olympic figure-skating champion Sonja Henie.

Now worth an estimated 20 million US dollars (£12.1 million), the painting was taken by Goering after Mr Rosenberg fled to New York in 1940, and sold to a Parisian art dealer who was later convicted of dealing in Nazi looted art.

It was acquired from a different French gallery in 1950 by Mr Onstad, who was apparently unaware of its provenance.