Virgin Painting Returned to Heirs of Jewish Art Dealer

A museum in Stuttgart today handed over an early Renaissance painting to the heirs of Max Stern, a Jewish art dealer persecuted by the Nazis and forced to flee Germany 75 years ago.

The oil painting of the virgin and child is attributed to the Flemish artist, the Master of Flemalle (1375-1444), and was bequeathed to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart in 1948. The museum and the Holocaust Claims Processing Office in New York identified it as one of several works sold in 1938 to secure an exit permit for Stern’s mother Selma, according to a statement by Concordia University in Montreal, which is one of his heirs.