Healing wounds, looted art reunited with Nazi victims’ heirs
PARIS — Scam. That was Henrietta Schubert’s first thought when lawyers told her a 16th century Flemish painting hanging in a French museum belonged to her Jewish grandparents, who had sold it in 1938 to secure their passage from Nazi Germany to America.
But when France’s government returned “Portrait of a Man” to Schubert’s family on Monday, her tears could not have been more genuine.
“You never expect something like this,” Schubert, 67, said. “The Nazis are dead, and this can help our wounds heal.”
Aware that time is stealing chances to identify the owners of lost or looted WWII treasures, France has dialed up efforts to find them or their heirs. The government, which in the past relied on claimants to come forward, now is actively seeking them out.