Eike Schmidt: Germany to return van Huysum painting stolen by Nazis to Florence

The Uffizi Gallery ’s 2019 begins with an appeal to Germany by Director Eike D. Schmidt: the museum has in fact asked Germany for the return of a painting by Dutch artist Jan van Huysum (Amsterdam, 1682 - 1749), the Vase of Flowers, stolen in 1944 by Wehrmacht soldiers in Florence during World War II and now kept in Germany at a private collection. The family that owns it so far has not yet given its willingness to return the painting to Italy.

Jan van Huysum, Vase of Flowers (oil on canvas, 47 x 35 cm; formerly Florence, Pitti Palace)

Schmidt’s wish for 2019, then, is that the painting can return to where it belongs: in the Palatine Gallery of the Pitti Palace, where it arrived in 1824, following a purchase by the then Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II. The work remained on display for more than a century in the Sala dei Putti along with other Dutch works of art from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1940, when the palace was evacuated at the beginning of the war, the painting was taken to the Medici villa in Poggio a Caiano, after which, in 1943, it was moved to the Bossi Pucci villa, also in Florence, until soldiers of the retreating German army took it along with other works to transfer it to Castel Giovio, in the province of Bolzano. The crate in which the Flower Vase from the Pitti Palace was kept was opened: the stolen work ended up in Germany, where traces of it were lost. Jan van Huysum’s work did not reappear until decades later, in 1991, shortly after German reunification: since then, various intermediaries have repeatedly attempted to contact the authorities in Italy, demanding a ransom for it. A demand of such absurdity that recently, after the latest outrageous offer, the Florence prosecutor’s office opened an investigation: the painting is in fact already the property of the Italian state, and therefore cannot be alienated or purchased.

“An appeal to Germany, for 2019,” said Eike Schmidt. “We hope that during the course of this year the famous Vase of Flowers by Dutch painter Jan van Huysum, stolen by Nazi soldiers during World War II and, at present, in the possession of a German family who, after all this time, has still not returned it to the museum, despite numerous requests from the Italian state, can finally be returned to the Uffizi Galleries in Florence.”

“Because of this affair affecting the heritage of the Uffizi Galleries,” the director added, “the wounds of World War II and Nazi terror have not yet healed. Germany should abolish the statute of limitations for works stolen during the conflict and make sure that they can return to their rightful owners,” Schmidt noted, stressing that “for Germany there is nevertheless a moral duty to return this work to our museum: and I hope that the German state can do so as soon as possible, along, of course, with every work of art looted by the Nazi army.”

In the meantime, a black-and-white reproduction of van Huysum’s Vase of Flowers accompanied by the words “stolen” in three languages (Italian, English, and German) and an explanatory caption recalling how it was Wehrmacht soldiers who removed it from its natural location. “We will be very happy to remove this photographic memory,” Schmidt concludes, “when the original is returned to the Uffizi.”

Pictured below: Eike Schmidt with the reproduction of the Jan van Huysum painting in the Pitti Palace.

Eike Schmidt: Germany to return van Huysum painting stolen by Nazis to Florence

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