Nazi loot claim over Burrell Collection tapestry

[theHandpuppet]

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/arts/visual-arts/nazi-loot-claim-over-burrell-collection-tapestry-1-3061934

from The Scotsman
Monday 26th August 2013
by MARTYN MCLAUGHLIN

ONE of Britain’s most est­eemed art collections is at the centre of an extraordinary legal wrangle with the heirs of a Jewish philanthropist whose multi-million pound treasure trove of artefacts was plundered by the Third Reich, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.

The Burrell Collection has been served with a formal “spoliation” claim from lawyers acting on behalf of relatives of Emma Budge over a rare tapestry which has formed part of the ­Glasgow institution’s inventory for more than seven decades.

In a potentially embarrassing case for Scotland’s largest local authority, the descendants of the German-American collector claim the 16th century Swiss artefact was sold off as part of a forced auction in the late 1930s.

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The Budge Collection, comprising around 1,500 paintings, tapestries and prized porcelain, was sold under duress in one of the largest forced auctions of the Nazi era. The sale took place in 1937 in a so-called “Jew auction” at Paul Graupe, a leading Berlin sales house which also sold the Chardin painting. Although some works from the Budge Collection have been recovered, the whereabouts of the vast majority remain unknown.... MORE at link above