[MSN] 17th-century Dutch painting, lost in the Holocaust, was auctioned after Poland helped broker a deal between the late Jewish art dealer's descendants and the current owner.

[MSN]

$90,000 for painting lost in Holocaust
Posted 18 hours ago

A 17th-century Dutch painting, lost in the Holocaust, was auctioned after Poland helped broker a deal between the late Jewish art dealer's descendants and the current owner.

The oil painting A Boy, in Profile, Singing, in a Feigned Oval by Pieter de Grebber sold for $90,863, including the buyer's premium, at a Christie's auction Friday.

The painting once belonged to Abe Gutnajer, an art dealer in Warsaw, Poland, who bought it at auction in 1917. Nazi troops killed the art collector in the Warsaw Ghetto in July 1942. Polish officials say the work was either confiscated by Nazi officials or looted by Nazi troops after Gutnajer and his family were forced into the Warsaw Ghetto.

The painting resurfaced in 2006 when a Latvian, who declined to be identified, offered it for auction.

The auction house confirmed the attribution to de Grebber of the unsigned work, which Art Loss Register officials found on Poland's list of art that disappeared during the Second World War.

The work was auctioned after Christie's, aided by Poland's Foreign Ministry, won the approval of the Latvian owner and of Eve Gutnajer-Infanti, the widow of Gutnajer's son, Ludwik, who lives in Philadelphia, and of her children, Stefan and Krystyna.

The buyer was London dealer Johnny Van Haeften, who only a few years ago had returned a portrait by Adrien Brouwer to Poland after learning it had been stolen. He said he bought the de Grebber because he really liked the painting - though taking part in restitution to the heirs was nice, too.

http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/