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Stern paintings unveiled at MMFA 

By Russ Cooper

On May 20, the fifth anniversary of the creation of the Max Stern Art Restitution Project, seven Old Master and 19th century paintings thus far recovered were uncovered at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art (MMFA), ushering in a new era for art restitution worldwide.

The centrepiece of the event was the revealing of Girl from the Sabine Mountains by German artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873) – the most famous European court painter of his day.

"This moment is important to us, to all three universities who have been our champions and our backers, to government officials and to all our collaborators because we can now see five years of spirited efforts taking shape," said Concordia Director of Special Projects and Cultural Affairs Clarence Epstein, who heads the Max Stern Art Restitution Project. (See Journal, May 7, 2009).

Among those participating in the event were Concordia President Judith Woodsworth, McGill Principal Heather Munroe-Blum, National President of the Canadian Friends of Hebrew University Nathan Lindenberg, and Director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Nathalie Bondil. Also present were U.S. Consul General Lee McClenny, New York agents from the Department of Homeland Security, the project's chief investigator Willi Korte and lead attorney in the Winterhalter case Thomas Kline.

Also in attendance was Art History Professor Catherine MacKenzie, whose exhibition Auktion 392: Reclaiming the Galerie Stern, Düsseldorf brought international awareness to the issue (see Journal, Oct 26, 2006). The exhibit has traveled to New York, Jerusalem and London, and is slated for showings in Europe later this year.

In addition to local and national news coverage of the event, filmmakers from Toronto gathered footage for an upcoming documentary film about Max Stern.

The project now boasts an international network of collaborators ranging from government agencies, law enforcement, database services, auction houses, dealers, collectors, private foundations, scholars, archivists, conservators and curators. To date, 400 paintings from Stern's estate have been identified as illegally seized by Nazis.

Montreal is significant to the project for a number of reasons. The city became the adopted home of Max Stern after he moved here in 1943, as well as being the bases of Concordia and McGill. Of all the museums Stern supported in North America and Israel, he left the largest proportion of his private collection to the MMFA.

However momentous this day was, Epstein states, the job is far from done. Many of the yet-unrecovered works are located in German-speaking countries where similar legal precedents need to be established.

"Our goal is to increase our presence in those jurisdictions not only with the intention of righting historical wrongs, but also educating individuals and institutions about their moral obligations," said Epstein.

The museum event comes on the eve of a major international conference in Prague this June. The Holocaust Era Assets Conference is a follow-up to the 1998 gathering that established the Washington Principles – the set of guidelines signed by 44 countries identifying the restitution and negotiation processes for stolen art.