Ohio Auction House Pulls Nazi-Looted Paintings Worth Over 500K

Two 17th-century paintings were withdrawn from sale after a Holocaust restitution organization confirmed they had been taken from a German Jew’s collection in France during World War II.

The works, believed to be by Dutch painter Ambrosius Bosschaert, were scheduled for auction this month in Newark, Ohio. Their removal followed a tip sent to the Monuments Men and Women Foundation, prompting the group to investigate.

Researchers from the foundation, which focuses on recovering art stolen in Europe during the war, traced the pieces to the family of Adolphe Schloss, a German Jew whose collection of 333 artworks was seized and divided by the Nazis.

The find comes shortly after Argentine police uncovered “Portrait of a Lady” by Giuseppe Ghislandi, which Nazis had taken from a Dutch Jewish dealer. That painting was located when photos of a real estate listing surfaced, tied to the daughter of a Nazi finance official who fled to Argentina.

The Ohio discovery highlights the vast number of looted artworks still missing and the variety of ways they continue to emerge.

Schloss’ collection, including the two Bosschaert paintings, had been stored at Hitler’s Munich headquarters before vanishing in the final days of the war as Allied troops closed in. Schloss’ children survived, though much of their art was never recovered.

After receiving the lead about the sale, Robert Edsel, founder and chair of the Monuments Men and Women Foundation, traveled to Newark to meet with the Apple Tree Auction Center’s owners and detail the paintings’ history.

“Within 48 hours of receiving this lead, the Foundation documented the provenance of the works that supports the Schloss ownership, inspected the two paintings in person, attained the cooperation of the auction house to remove the pictures from their sale, and reached out to the attorney for the Schloss heirs,” Edsel said. “We look forward to completing this collaborative approach to resolving this matter and we hope they will return to the Schloss family soon.”

The still-life flower paintings had been listed online as unclaimed property, though the auction house has not disclosed the consignor’s name.

Experts say looted art could have ended up there in many ways. Some Nazis, including John Demjanjuk, later convicted for war crimes at Sobibor, settled in Ohio and other parts of the Midwest. In other cases, soldiers returning from Europe brought items back as souvenirs.

The foundation is now working to identify the bank connected to the safety deposit box where the works were kept, aiming to hand them over to Schloss’ heirs.

Bids for the paintings had reached $3,250 and $225, but Edsel told Art News that they might be worth more than $500,000.

“These two paintings surfaced at a small auction house in the Midwest, but it could have happened anywhere,” said Anna Bottinelli, the foundation’s president. “Hundreds of thousands of cultural objects looted during WWII are still missing. Some are in the United States, tucked away in attics, hanging on walls, and stuffed in unopened boxes, passed down through generations.”