| Synopsis: |
The Spoliation Advisory Panel, an agency of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, resolves claims from people, or their heirs, who lost property during the Nazi era which is now held in UK national collections. In 2006, the Trustees of the Samuel Courtauld Trust received a claim from Ms Christine Koenigs, the granddaughter of the late Franz W. Koenigs of the Netherlands, in respect of three oil sketches by Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).The paintings in question are: "St. Gregory the Great with Ss. Maurus and Papianus and St. Domitilla with Ss. Nereus and Achilleus" (1606-1607); "The Conversion of St. Paul" (c.1610-1612); and, "The Bounty of James I Triumphing Over Avarice", for the ceiling in the Banqueting House, Whitehall, (c.1632-1633).The claimant contended that the family lost possession in 1940 when the paintings, which had been loaned to a Museum and had been used as collateral to secure a loan from a bank, were called in when the bank went into liquidation. The paintings were sold to a collector, Count Antione Seilern, who subsequently bequeathed them to the Home House Society (the predecessor of the Samuel Courtauld Trust) in 1978.The claimant submitted that the paintings were undervalued when sold, as a result of a conspiracy by two persons connected with the museum, and that the sale must have been made under duress.The Spoliation Advisory Panel considered the submissions and evidence submitted by both the claimant and the Courtauld in order to establish whether Koenigs was deprived of these paintings as a result of Nazi spoliation and, if so, to assess the moral strength of the claimant's case and whether any moral obligation rests on the Courtauld. The Panel concludes that the family were deprived of the paintings neither by theft, nor by forced sale or by sale at an undervalue. The Panel recommends that the claim be rejected. |