Stolen Paintings Returned

The United States returned on Tuesday a rare early 17th century portrait of a musician holding bagpipes that was seized by Nazis from a German-Jewish art dealer Max Stern in 1937, to his estate.

The work was turned over at a ceremony in New York commemorating the Holocaust to representatives of three schools in Montreal and Jerusalem that were Max Stern’s beneficiaries: Concordia, McGill and Hebrew universities. Stern sought asylum in Canada after fleeing the Nazis before the start of World War II .

But before his departure, he was forced by the Germans in November 1937 to liquidate his art collection of 228 pieces at rock bottom prices. AFP

From TODAY, World – Thursday, 23-April-2009