Presentation of the painting “Portrait of the Artist’s Children” to the “Dr. Max and Iris Stern Foundation”

On Monday, May 15, Mayor Dr. Stephan Keller presented the painting "Portrait of the Children of the Artist" (1830) by Wilhelm von Schadow symbolically to Dr. Clarence Epstein of the "Dr. Max and Iris Stern Foundation". Among the invited guests were Isabelle Poupart, Chargée d’affaires a.i. of Canada to Germany, and Dr. Gilbert Lupfer, Director of the German Lost Art Foundation.

Mayor Dr. Stephan Keller: “Today’s handover of the ‘Portrait of the Artist’s Children’ to the ‘Dr. Max and Iris Stern Foundation’ makes it clear that the state capital Düsseldorf is aware of its historical responsibility and acts accordingly. I am pleased that the painting will remain in Düsseldorf and be accessible to the public.”

In a meeting on April 20 2023, the Council of the City of Düsseldorf decided to restitute the work to the “Dr. Max and Iris Stern Foundation”. The city and the Stern Foundation have jointly found a way to ensure the painting remains in Düsseldorf. The agreement with the Stern Foundation provides that the work will remain in the city’s collection through a repurchase. In the future the painting will again be presented to the public as an exhibit in the Museum Kunstpalast.

Isabelle Poupart, Chargée d’affaires a.i. of Canada to Germany: “I am pleased to announce today the return of the painting "Portrait of the Children of the Artist" (1830) by Wilhelm von Schadow to the Dr. Max and Iris Stern Foundation by the City of Düsseldorf under the leadership of Mayor Dr. Stephan Keller. While this restitution case is now closed, many others involving various institutions remain open and I want to thank the Foundation for their ongoing efforts towards facilitating the return of cultural heritage of the Jews of Europe to their rightful heirs. Canada remains committed to combatting antisemitism and promoting Holocaust education, remembrance and research."

The restitution of the painting is due to a gap in its provenance which can no longer be closed by research. Taking into account the history of persecution of the Düsseldorf art dealer Max Stern and his family, the city decided to return the artwork. It thus complies with the fourth principle of the 1998 Washington Conference, according to which, finding a just and fair solution should consider “that gaps and ambiguities in provenance are unavoidable in the light of the passage of time and the circumstances of the Holocaust era”.

Dr. Clarence Epstein, Director of the Max Stern Restitution Project: “The road leading to the restitution of this second Schadow painting from the Stern collections was saddled with more political setbacks than the first one recovered by us ten years ago from the City of Dusseldorf. We commend the current administration for taking the decision to adhere to the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Looted Art."

Stern Foundation and Stadtmuseum research project
In addition, the Stern Foundation is planning a new research project in cooperaton with the Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf and the Landesverband der Jüdischen Gemeinden von Nordrhein (State Association of Jewish Communities of North Rhine). The research will focus on the the transactions of the Stern Gallery, with particular reference to Jewish clients in the period 1933 to 1935. For this purpose a joint funding application to the German Lost Art Foundation will be submitted in June.

The starting point for the period 1933 to 1935 is the recommendation of the Advisory Commission – in the Stern case this was given by the Bavarian State Painting Collections. It details that Max Stern had been acting under pressure of persecution since August 1933 at the latest. Additionally, the results of research into Stern at the Central Institute for Art History in Munich document that Max Stern was subjected to persecution measures as early as March 1933.

Furthermore, research into Max Stern revealed that the gallery had numerous business relationships with Jewish clients in the early years of the Nazi era. These were customers who both bought and sold. Unfortunately, these relationships are poorly documented in the still existing Stern documents. In the past, it was only possible to reconstruct a few of these business relationships.

The Stern Gallery in Düsseldorf
Julius Stern had been active as an art dealer in Düsseldorf since 1913, opening his gallery on Königsallee in 1917. His son Max Stern (1904-1987) continued the business after his father’s death in 1934. The gallery specialised, among other areas, in art of the Düsseldorf School of Painting, and, in addition to the Flechtheim and Paffrath galleries, was one of the best-known addresses of the time in the Düsseldorf art trade. Under persecution by the Nazi regime, Max Stern was finally forced to give up the business in 1937 and auction off a large part of his stock.

Emigration, which Max Stern and his family only achieved at considerable economic loss, took him via Paris and London to Canada. In Montreal, the art dealer, forced to flee from Düsseldorf by the National Socialists, once again gained a foothold in the art trade and, with his wife Iris Stern, ran the successful Dominion Gallery from 1947 onwards. The council’s decision brings to an amicable end a long period of negotiations between the state capital Düsseldorf and the Dr. Max and Iris Stern Foundation. The agreement follows an earlier restitution to the Stern Foundation by the City of Düsseldorf: In 2013, the "Self-Portrait of the Artist," also by Wilhelm von Schadow, was returned. Stern had consigned this work to auction in November 1937. The painting is currently in the Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, on loan from the Stern Foundation.