Knoedler sued (again) for selling looted art

The Springfield Museum in Massachusetts has filed suit against New York art gallery Knoedler. Knoedler sold a painting by Jacopo Bassano to the museum back in 1955 that turned out to have been stolen from the Italian embassy in Warsaw during WW2 (it was returned by the museum in 2001).

It would seem that Knoedler doesn't have much of a defense, in that it apparently (as one would expect) warranted good title at the time of sale, so I would guess that this all comes down to how much compensation will be paid. The original purchase price was $5000, but a recent appraisal supposedly gave a value of $3M. Likely this will be settled in a manner similar to that of the Nazi-looted Matisse recently returned by the Seattle Art Museum, sold by Knoedler in 1954.

Posted by David on October 11, 2003 9:23 AM