In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jan.27), it is timely to report that a small act of justice – 61 years delayed – was carried out this month: A valuable Nazi-looted painting was returned to the grandson of its Jewish owners.
Associated Press reports that Rutgers University was informed over a year ago that it was holding a painting seized by the Nazis in Holland in 1940. Upon investigating the claim and finding it to be valid, Rutgers returned the valuable piece of art.
The painting in question was drawn over five centuries ago, in 1509, and is named "Portrait of a Young Man." It was hanging in the Netherlands home of the grandparents of Simon Goodman, now of Los Angeles, when the Nazis seized it and deported the owners to death camps, where they were murdered.
Goodman phoned the director of the Zimmerli Art Museum in Rutgers in October 2009, and said, "I believe you have a painting that belongs to my family." The director, Suzanne Delehanty, said at a ceremony this week, "We decided right away we wanted to do the right thing."
After a year of investigating the claim, Rutgers came to the conclusion that the painting did in fact belong to Goodman’s grandparents, and returned it to him. Delehanty said that the restitution of World War-II era artwork is "one of the most important legal and moral issues facing museums today."
Goodman praised Rutgers for its “professionalism and courtesy,” and said he plans to sell the work for between $50,000 and $250,000. He said his grandparents owned 17 other works that were taken by the Nazis, and he is trying to track them down as well.