Paintings looted by Nazis, returned to heirs, sold in NY
NEW YORK -- A collection of more than 30 Old Masters looted from a Dutch dealer by the Nazis during World War II and returned to his heirs last year fetched almost $10 million at auction Thursday.
The 31 lots sold for a total of $9.7 million, Christie's auction house said, with a river landscape by Salomon van Ruysdael the top-selling lot, bought for $2.2 million, well below its estimate of three to five million.
The lots were part of a collection of 200 artworks looted by the Nazis in 1940 and restituted to Marei von Saher, the daughter-in-law of Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, by the Dutch government last year.
Other works from the collection, which features Dutch Old Masters from the 15th to 19th centuries as well as works from 16th century Germany and 18th century France, are to go on sale in London in July and Amsterdam in November.
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The 31 lots sold for a total of $9.7 million, Christie's auction house said, with a river landscape by Salomon van Ruysdael the top-selling lot, bought for $2.2 million, well below its estimate of three to five million.
The lots were part of a collection of 200 artworks looted by the Nazis in 1940 and restituted to Marei von Saher, the daughter-in-law of Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, by the Dutch government last year.
Other works from the collection, which features Dutch Old Masters from the 15th to 19th centuries as well as works from 16th century Germany and 18th century France, are to go on sale in London in July and Amsterdam in November.