Picasso dispute: Is ‘Madame Soler’ looted art?

Julia Hitz

Madame Soler’s gaze is grave, alert and focused. This intense look was how painter Pablo Picasso captured the wife of his friend, tailor Benet Soler, in 1903. The portrait from Picasso’s Blue Period has since become the subject of a protracted and bitter dispute between the heirs of Jewish banker and art collector Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1875-1935) and the Bavarian State Painting Collections. Both sides claim rightful ownership of “Madame Soler.” The Bavarian State Painting Collections is the custodian of a large part of the public art collections belonging to the Free State of Bavaria, as well as the Bavarian museums and public art galleries in which these artworks are exhibited.

The dispute over “Madame Soler” is complicated because the parties disagree on whether the painting was sold under duress — in the context of the persecution and dispossession of Jews in Nazi Germany starting in 1933. Yet, there is no conclusive evidence to this end.

Since it is not possible in Germany to legally sue for statute-barred restitution claims — and because US courts have denied jurisdiction — the dispute over “Madame Soler” has reached an impasse. Public pressure is being used to break this deadlock.

Yet there is one possible recourse in Germany in such cases: the Limbach Commission. Set up in 2003 by the German government, the commission can be called upon to mediate in disputes involving the restitution of Nazi-looted art, especially from persecuted Jewish citizens during the Third Reich, now held by museums, libraries, archives, or other public institutions in Germany. It can then review the case and make legally non-binding — though morally no-less important — recommendations to settle the dispute.

The disputing parties must both agree to the Commission reviewing their case, however. The Bavarian State Painting Collections has shown itself unwilling to take this step.

Together with his first wife, Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy amassed a considerable private collection of modern artists in Berlin, which may have included Picasso’s “Madame Soler” from as early as 1913/14, but at the latest from 1930. In 1934, however, the manager of the Lucerne branch of the Justin K. Thannhauser art dealership noted there was evidence of intention to sell. Thannhauser, himself a Jew, had helped to establish the painter’s worldwide fame with his major Picasso exhibition in Munich in 1913.

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy died of a heart attack on May 11, 1935, and his second wife became his heir. In August 1935, “Madame Soler” was listed by the Thannhauser Gallery in Berlin as “purchased.” In October 1935, Thannhauser offered the painting for sale, along with four other works by Picasso. But he himself came under increasing pressure in Nazi Germany, went to Paris and fled from there in 1940 — with many unframed works in his luggage — to the USA. “Madame Soler” henceforth became part of Thannhauser’s private collection in New York — prominently placed and clearly visible to guests. In November 1964, the Bavarian State Painting Collections acquired Picasso’s “Madame Soler” for 1.7 mn Swiss francs (1.6 mn Deutschmarks) from Justin Thannhauser through a company based in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.

This article was provided by Deutsche Welle