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Following the results of a provenance search, the Kunstmuseum Bern relinquished ownership of a work by the English painter Alfred Sisley. The heirs of the Jewish entrepreneur Carl Sachs, who was persecuted by the Nazis, had claimed the painting.
The painting Le Chemin des Bois à Ville-d’Avary from 1879 came into the possession of the Kunstmuseum Bern through the Kunstmuseum Bern foundation thanks to a bequest in 1994. Recent research into the provenance revealed that the Jewish businessman and art collector Carls Sachs sold the work to the Lucerne art dealer Theodor Fischer in 1940. The sale can be traced back to the persecution by the Nazi regime, the museum wrote in a note today.
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Sachs had in fact sold his works mainly to earn a living. He and his wife Margarete had been persecuted by the Nazi regime because of their Jewish origins. Having lost almost all their assets to state looting, they had to flee in 1939. Several family members died in concentration camps, the museum states in the note.
According to the statement, Theodor Fischer – who had business dealings with the Nazi regime – was aware of Sachs’s situation and his life in exile.
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However, there are no indications that the later owner, who bequeathed the painting to the Kunstmuseum, was aware of this background, the note states. The Bernese museum is currently working out an amicable settlement with Carl Sachs’s heirs, the release states. The family had submitted a request for the return of the work in February last year. The modalities of the transfer will be defined in the agreement.
Adapted from Italian by DeepL/ac
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