Bavarian National Museum returns Nazi-looted art to heirs

The Bavarian National Museum is returning two late 15th-century reliefs to the heirs of Jakob Goldschmidt, a prominent Jewish banker from the Weimar Republic. The artworks, which depict a donor family from Nuremberg, were identified as Nazi-looted art following provenance research.

A crucial piece of evidence in the investigation was a private photograph from 1933 showing the reliefs hanging in a salon within Goldschmidt’s villa in Berlin’s Tiergarten district. The reliefs had entered the museum's collection in 2023 as part of the Bollert collection, originating from the estate of Gerhart Bollert.

Jakob Goldschmidt, a partner at the Danat-Bank, faced increased antisemitic attacks and financial hardship following the 1931 banking collapse. He eventually fled Germany for Switzerland and later New York, leaving his possessions behind as the Nazi regime rose to power.