France Returns Nazi-Looted 17th-Century Painting to Jewish Family Heirs

A 17th-century painting looted by the Nazis from a Jewish family in France in 1942 was returned to the family's heirs during a ceremony held at the French Ministry of Culture.

The artwork, titled "Portrait of a Woman in Blue," was created by Dutch-Flemish painter Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen (1593–1661). The Nazis confiscated the painting from the Paris home of Gabrielle Philipson shortly after her death, and high-ranking Nazi official Hermann Göring later selected it for his private art collection. Shortly after the war ended, the painting was discovered in Berchtesgaden, Germany, alongside the rest of Göring's collection.

While Philipson's children successfully recovered several looted items immediately after the war—including a companion piece to the portrait—this specific artwork remained missing for decades. The painting was finally located in 2023 at the Massey Museum in Tarbes, southwestern France, which had acquired it in 1985. The municipality of Tarbes and the Philipson family reached an agreement allowing the museum to keep the painting in exchange for acquiring a new artwork of equal value for the family.

"The return of this painting reminds us that artworks looted during that era can still be found today in public collections—items acquired without a clear understanding of their historical background and previous ownership," French Minister of Culture Catherine Pégard stated in a press release.

A French framework law enacted on July 22, 2023, facilitates the restitution of looted artworks held in public collections. Previously, such restitution was not automatic due to the legal principle that museum-held works are inalienable. During World War II, the Nazis systematically looted tens of thousands of Jewish-owned homes in France, with stolen items subsequently sold, acquired by Nazi elites, or earmarked for Adolf Hitler's planned Führermuseum.

Pégard noted that German forces looted approximately 38,000 apartments belonging to Jews in France whose occupants fled, were arrested, or were murdered. Göring, who amassed a vast stolen art collection, was captured by American forces in May 1945. Convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials, he died by suicide hours before his scheduled execution.