Art stolen by Nazis found on German "Antiques Roadshow"
Many of the tens of thousands of valuable artworks stolen by the Nazis are still missing today. Police are now investigating one painting that recently surfaced on Germany's version of "The Antiques Roadshow," but the show is refusing to identify the painting's owner.
It is the moment that anyone who has ever watched "Antiques Roadshow," or one of it's many imitators around the world, has dreamed of. The moment you present the old painting you found behind some shelves in the garage and you are told by experts it is a long lost cultural treasure, worth hundreds of thousands.
This is exactly what happened recently on German television show "Kunst und Krempel" -- literally "art and junk" -- which estimates the value of antique items found by Germans. Only the news wasn't all positive. After watching the show in November, a viewer from Munich called the local police to tell them that he thought he had seen some stolen art appear on the show.
He had recognized a piece of art, valued at up to €100,000 ($143,000) that had once been stolen by the Nazis. The last known owner was most likely Adolf Hitler himself.
The art in question was a 17th century painting, named "Sermon on the Mount" by the Flemish baroque painter Frans Francken the Younger. And this week, Munich's State Office of Criminal Investigation announced that it was officially looking into the case. It was calling on members of the public who might know how the valuable piece ended up on TV to come forward...
... This is not the first time that stolen art has shown up on Antiques Roadshow-style series around the world. In 2007, in the US, a painting found in the garbage in New York was identified as a stolen masterpiece by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo worth $1 million after it featured on the American version of the show. And in the Britain, a Sotheby's auction of a painting, by American artist Winslow Homer, first spotted on "Antique Roadshow" was called off in May this year. This was due to a dispute over whether the artwork, valued at around £100,000 (€114,000), was stolen or not.
Read entire article at Spiegel Online
It is the moment that anyone who has ever watched "Antiques Roadshow," or one of it's many imitators around the world, has dreamed of. The moment you present the old painting you found behind some shelves in the garage and you are told by experts it is a long lost cultural treasure, worth hundreds of thousands.
This is exactly what happened recently on German television show "Kunst und Krempel" -- literally "art and junk" -- which estimates the value of antique items found by Germans. Only the news wasn't all positive. After watching the show in November, a viewer from Munich called the local police to tell them that he thought he had seen some stolen art appear on the show.
He had recognized a piece of art, valued at up to €100,000 ($143,000) that had once been stolen by the Nazis. The last known owner was most likely Adolf Hitler himself.
The art in question was a 17th century painting, named "Sermon on the Mount" by the Flemish baroque painter Frans Francken the Younger. And this week, Munich's State Office of Criminal Investigation announced that it was officially looking into the case. It was calling on members of the public who might know how the valuable piece ended up on TV to come forward...
... This is not the first time that stolen art has shown up on Antiques Roadshow-style series around the world. In 2007, in the US, a painting found in the garbage in New York was identified as a stolen masterpiece by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo worth $1 million after it featured on the American version of the show. And in the Britain, a Sotheby's auction of a painting, by American artist Winslow Homer, first spotted on "Antique Roadshow" was called off in May this year. This was due to a dispute over whether the artwork, valued at around £100,000 (€114,000), was stolen or not.