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The panels that were previously exhibited in the picture gallery are by Giovanni di Paolo. They show two scenes from the life of St Clare of Assisi (1194 - 1253): The Dressing of St Clare by St Francis, and St Clare Rescuing Shipwrecked Men, both from around 1455, each measuring approximately 20x30 cm.

Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK: "We already returned a late medieval alabaster relief from the Fuld Collection in 2009 and two fabric fragments in 2012. I am delighted that the provenance of the two predella panels, which were probably among the most important works in Harry Fuld senior's collection, has also been clarified and that they have now been returned to their descendants."

Harry Fuld senior (3 February 1879 - 26 January 1932) was the owner of the company he founded, H. Fuld & Co, a large company that manufactured telephones, and owned an extensive and important art collection. The Frankfurt entrepreneur died in 1932, leaving behind his widow Lucie Mayer-Fuld and his two sons Harry Fuld jun. and Peter Harry Fuld. In his will, he had stipulated that his estate was not to be distributed to his heirs until 1950. As both the Fuld family itself and the executors of the will were subject to persecution as Jews after the Nazis seized power, the will could not be properly executed: the estate was wound up prematurely. The company was aryanised and the sons emigrated.

In 1940, the two Predell panels were purchased by the Berlin museums for the Kaiser Friedrich Museum via the art dealer Carl Bümming. It is not known for whom Bümming acted as an intermediary. However, it can be ruled out that the sale of the Predell panels would have proceeded as it did without the rule of the National Socialists. The SPK has therefore decided to restitute them in accordance with the Washington Principles of 1998.

Press photos

• Press photos of the Fuld restitution

The Harry Fuld family

At the beginning of the National Socialist regime, the company H. Fuld & Co. was boycotted and the Jewish co-owners were forced to leave. Harry Fuld Jr. (1913 - 1963), who came from his father's first marriage, was also no longer employed there. He worked in Vienna for several years until he emigrated to England in 1937. During the war, he was temporarily deported to Australia as an "enemy alien". Harry Fuld jun. worked in London from 1943. The younger son Peter (1921 - 1962) from the second marriage initially remained in Frankfurt until the school advised him to leave. In 1937, his mother sent him to Switzerland and he later studied in London. During the war, he was deported to Canada, where he completed his studies after being released from the camp. Peter Harry Fuld returned to Europe in 1945, where he worked in London and Frankfurt. Lucie Mayer-Fuld, whom Harry Fuld Sr. had married as his third wife in 1926, emigrated to France in 1939. As it could not be conclusively clarified to which of his heirs Harry Fuld Sr. had left the two now returned Predell panels, the SPK and the descendants have mutually agreed to restitute the works to the entire community of heirs.

The restitution to the heir of Harry Fuld Jr. in 2009 and 2012

The alabaster relief with the Carrying of the Cross, which the SPK restituted in 2009, was acquired for the museums thanks to the financial commitment of the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung. It is one of the most important depictions of the Passion in the late Middle Ages and is now on display in the Bode Museum. The SPK also agreed a fair and equitable solution with the heiress, Magen David Adom UK, for the two so-called Zeugdrucke, which remained in the Kunstgewerbemuseum.

Further links

• Press release on the restitution of the alabaster relief (30.11.2009)
• Dossier article SPK magazine "Fair and just" (21 November 2018)
• Yearbook article on the restitution of Zeugdrucke and the Fuld family history. Yearbook of Prussian Cultural Heritage vol. 48/2012