Pennsylvania museum sells paintings as part of a settlement with the heirs of a Jewish family that fled the Nazis

A museum in Pennsylvania has agreed to sell a 16th-century portrait that once belonged to a Jewish family who were forced to part with it while fleeing Nazi Germany before World War II.

The Allentown Art Museum auctions “Portrait of George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony”, The restitution suit brought by the heirs of the former owner has been settled, museum representatives announced on Monday. The museum bought the painting, attributed to the German Renaissance master Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop, from a New York gallery in 1961 and has exhibited it since then.

The portrait belonged to Henry Bromberg, a judge at the district court in Hamburg, who had inherited a large collection of old master paintings from his father, a businessman. Bromberg and his wife Hertha Bromberg endured years of Nazi persecution before leaving Germany in 1938 and emigrating to the United States via Switzerland and France.

“During their persecution and escape from Nazi Germany, Henry and Hertha Bromberg had to part with their works of art by selling them through various art dealers, including Cranach,” said their lawyer Imke Gielen.

The Brombergs settled in New Jersey and later moved to Yardley, Pennsylvania.

Two years ago, her descendants approached the museum about the painting, and the museum management began settlement talks. The museum management described the impending sale as a fair and just solution given the “ethical dimensions of the history of the painting in the Bromberg family.”

“This artwork came to market and ultimately found its way to the museum only because Henry Bromberg had to flee persecution by Nazi Germany. This moral imperative compelled us to act,” said Max Weintraub, the museum’s president and CEO, in a statement.

The work, an oil painting on panel, painted around 1534, will be auctioned at Christie’s Old Master Sale in New York in January. The museum and the family will share the proceeds as part of a settlement agreement. Exact terms have been kept confidential.

One topic that came up during the discussions is when and where the painting was sold. The family believes the painting was sold under duress while the Brombergs were still in Germany. The museum said its research was inconclusive and it may have been sold after the Brombergs left.

This uncertainty “was the reason for the compromise rather than everyone holding their position and going to court,” said the museum’s attorney, Nicholas M. O’Donnell.

Christie’s said it could not estimate the value of the portrait until the attribution was clear. Works by Cranach – the official painter of the Saxon court in Wittenberg and a friend of the reformer Martin Luther – are generally worth more than those attributed to Cranach and his workshop. Cranach’s Portrait of Johann Friedrich I, Elector of Saxony, sold for $7.7 million in 2018. Another painting attributed to Cranach and his workshop sold for about $1.1 million in 2009.

“It is always exciting when a work by a rare and important Northern Renaissance master such as Lucas Cranach the Elder becomes available, particularly as the result of a just restitution. This painting has been in the public domain for decades, but we have taken this opportunity to conduct new research, and it leads to the tentative conclusion that it was painted by Cranach with the assistance of his workshop,” Marc Porter, chairman of Christie’s Americas, said in a statement.

The Bromberg family has reached agreements with the private owners of two other works. The family is still searching for about 80 other works that were probably lost during Nazi persecution, said Gielen, the family’s lawyer.

“We are pleased that another painting from our grandparents’ art collection has been identified and are satisfied that the Allentown Art Museum has carefully and responsibly investigated the provenance of the portrait of George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony, as well as the circumstances under which Henry and Hertha Bromberg were forced to part with it during the Nazi era,” the Bromberg family said in a statement.