More than sixty years after the end of the war, a Florentine Mannerist portrait of a lady finds its way back to Berlin
Press release from 05/31/2006
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the Commission for Looted Art in Europe have good news to announce: A small-format Florentine Mannerist painting that went missing in the turmoil of the Second World War has today been handed over to the Berlin Gemäldegalerie by the London-based Commission for Looted Art in Europe and Charles Wheeler, in whose hands the painting has been in recent decades. This is the first time that a work published in the gallery's loss catalogue in 1995 has been identified and returned to the Berlin museum as its rightful owner. The painting was most probably painted at the Tuscan court. It is a portrait of Eleonora of Toledo (1522-1562), the daughter of the Neapolitan viceroy married to the Duke of Florence, Cosimo I de Medici. It is attributed to Alessandro Allori (1535-1607), a pupil and foster son of the court painter Agnolo Bronzino. A second portrait of Eleonora in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie is by the same artist.
Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, said at the handover: "Today's restitution gives us hope that more will follow. I am pleased that the historical reappraisal of our holdings is bearing fruit and leading to solutions that correspond to our legal views. The Foundation publicises its wartime losses and receives a work back on the initiative of others - as is the case today. However, it also takes the initiative itself in returning works to their rightful owners if, after detailed research, they turn out to have been expropriated as a result of Nazi persecution. I would like to thank the Commission for Looted Art for its good work." Anne Webber, Co-Chair of the London Commission, said: "We are delighted that we have been able to identify and return this beautiful painting to the Picture Gallery. Alongside paintings from Pirmasens, this is the fourth work from a German war loss that we have been able to facilitate the return of in the last six months. We are happy to continue working with the foundation and other German institutions to achieve similar successes in the future - both in relation to German war losses and to art and cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution, which is the focus of our work."
The chequered history of the painting
Measuring just 16 x 12 cm and painted on poplar wood, the painting has a chequered history, of which only fragments are known. Initially held by the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett, it was assigned to the Gemäldegalerie in 1894. The painting presumably went missing when it was removed during the war. It was listed as missing in 1944, after it had been documented photographically in 1939, the year the museums were closed and the removals began. It is not one of the works from the Gemäldegalerie that were brought to the supposed safety of the Friedrichshain flak tower, but unfortunately all of them are still missing. A few years after the end of the war, the miniature painting came into the hands of Charles Wheeler, now one of the BBC's best-known foreign correspondents, when he was working for the broadcaster in Berlin in his early years. He came into daily contact with his German listeners, who often visited him in his studio. One of them, a farmer from the Frankfurt an der Oder region, gave him the painting as a wedding present around 1952 and claimed that he himself had received it from a Russian soldier in a barter deal. For many decades Wheeler was unable to unravel the mystery surrounding the painting until last year when, while researching for a BBC programme about the loss of artworks during the Second World War, he contacted Anne Webber from the Commission for Looted Art and told her of his desire to trace the rightful owners of the small painting and return it. The Commission took up the matter and - after conducting its own research and forwarding a photograph of the painting to German museums and art historical documentation centres - was able to determine the provenance of the painting on the basis of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie's catalogue of losses and arrange its return.
The Commission for Looted Art and the Berlin loss catalogue
The London-based Commission for Lo oted Art in Europe is an expert non-profit organisation that represents individuals, museums and governments worldwide in researching, identifying and locating looted cultural property. The catalogue "Documentation of Losses, Volume I, Picture Gallery" published by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation appeared in 1995 and lists more than four hundred works. The works of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin that have been documented as losses to date can also be found on the Internet.
The sitter
As the wife of Cosimo I, whom she had married at the age of 17, Eleonora of Toledo experienced one of Florence's most glamorous periods. The duke had the Uffizi Gallery built, in which her son Francesco I would later set up the gallery. Cosimo had Giorgio Vasari transform the Palazzo Vecchio into a magnificent residence, in which Eleonora had a flat with its own chapel. However, Eleonora was also actively involved in Cosimo's business: Her husband entrusted her with the affairs of government in times of his absence, an unusual gesture at the time. He also purchased Palazzo Pitti for her in 1549, which soon became the seat of the grand ducal family, and had the Boboli Gardens laid out there.
The work of art
For stylistic reasons, the high-quality, meticulously painted and richly detailed picture depicting Eleonora as a young woman cannot be regarded as a direct portrait. It was probably painted in later years, possibly even in the seventies after her death, taking up one of the many portraits of the lady. The small format could indicate its use as part of a genealogical portrait series.
Charles Wheeler is available for interviews.
Contact:
Commission for Looted Art in Europe
Co-Chair Anne Webber
Tel 0044 (0)20 7487 3401 and 0044 (0)7774 697 324
An image of the painting can be ordered by email.