Max Stern works blocked from sale

Representatives of the Max Stern Estate beneficiaries were able to block the impending sale of two art works by a German auction house on Nov. 17.

The works, Market Scene in the Piazza Navona, Rome and Market Scene in the Piazza del Quirinale, Rome by the Dutch Baroque painter Mathjis Naiveu, were both identified as part of the Max Stern collection. Efforts to block the sale were resisted until the very last minute. The Van Ham auction house in Cologne, Germany, eventually agreed to withdraw the works due to intense media scrutiny.

The Stern collection was dismantled in 1937 when Nazi officials forced the sale of the works just before Stern fled Germany. Concordia and McGill Universities, along with Hebrew University in Jerusalem, are co-beneficiaries of the Max Stern estate and have been working to recover the hundreds of works sold under duress in order to recreate the collection as it was. Usually works are found when they go up for sale. So far, 40 works have been located this way, although only one has been restituted to date. (See the Journal, Oct. 26, 2006)

The Naiveu works were identified with the help of Concordia’s Max Stern Art Restitution Project, headed by Clarence Epstein, Director of Special Projects.