The heirs and great-grandchildren of Jewish Belgian art collector Samuel Hartveld are set to receive a painting by Henry Gibbs currently in the collection of the Tate
The heirs and great-grandchildren of Samuel Hartveld, a Jewish Belgian art collector, are set to be reunited with a painting that was looted by the Nazis when he fled his home city of Antwerp during the Second World War in May 1940. This significant development marks a poignant moment in the ongoing efforts to return cultural property stolen during the Nazi era to their rightful owners.
When Hartveld and his wife were forced to leave Antwerp, they had to abandon their most treasured possessions, including a painting by Henry Gibbs titled ‘Aeneas and his Family Fleeing Burning Troy’. This painting was one of 66 works in a gallery owned by Hartveld in Antwerp. The narrative painting, believed to comment on the English Civil War, depicts scenes from ‘The Aeneid’, a Latin poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and became the ancestor of the Romans. The artwork portrays Aeneas attempting to rescue his family from the burning city.
Tragically, after surviving the war, Hartveld was never reunited with his collection of paintings. The majority of the works were looted and sold by the German authorities, with Hartveld and his family receiving none of the proceeds. Some of these artworks may have changed hands multiple times since 1940 and are believed to be in galleries across Europe. The painting by Henry Gibbs was eventually purchased from Galerie Jan de Maere in Brussels in 1994 by the Tate collection.
The independent Spoliation Advisory Panel, established by the UK government in 2000, considers claims from anyone, or their heirs, who lost cultural property during the Nazi era, where such an object is now in a UK public collection. Over the last 25 years, the panel has received 23 claims, with 14 works being returned to the heirs of their former owners.
Arts Minister Sir Chris Bryant expressed his support for the decision, stating, “The case of Samuel Hartveld is the perfect example of the Spoliation Advisory Panel doing the work it was designed to do – helping to reunite families with their most treasured possessions that were looted by the Nazis. The decision to return the painting to the heirs of Samuel Hartveld and his wife is absolutely the right decision, which I welcome wholeheartedly.”
Maria Balshaw, Director of the Tate, also commented on the matter, saying, “It is a profound privilege to help reunite this work with its rightful heirs, and I am delighted to see the spoliation process working successfully to make this happen. Although the artwork’s provenance was extensively investigated when it was acquired in 1994, crucial facts concerning previous ownership of the painting were not known. I would like to thank the Sonia Klein Trust and the Spoliation Advisory panel for their collaboration over the last year. We now look forward to welcoming the family to Tate in the coming months and presenting the painting to them.”
The trustees of the Sonia Klein Trust, which acts for Mr. Hartveld’s heirs, expressed their gratitude, saying, “The trustees acting for the Sonia Klein Trust and their counsel, Dr. Hannes Hartung, based in Munich, are deeply grateful to the Spoliation Advisory Panel for their recommendation that Tate Britain restitute the narrative painting of Henry Gibbs’ ‘Aeneas and his family fleeing from burning Troy’ and parliament’s ratification of that recommendation. This decision clearly acknowledges the awful Nazi persecution of Samuel Hartveld and that the ‘clearly looted’ painting belonged to Mr. Hartveld, a Jewish Belgian art collector and dealer.”
The trustees further thanked the staff at Tate Britain for their cooperation and acknowledged the efforts of Geert Sels, author of ‘Kunst voor das Reich’, who identified the plight of Samuel Hartveld and his family due to Nazi persecution in Belgium during World War II. They stated, “With this restitution, the trustees acting for the Sonia Klein Trust honour and remember the life of Samuel Hartveld and his family.”
The Spoliation Advisory Panel received a claim from the trustees acting for the Sonia Klein Trust in May 2024, requesting the return of the painting by Henry Gibbs. After extensive research into how the family had lost the painting, it was identified as being in the Tate’s collection. The panel then considered all the evidence and decided that the legal and moral claims to the restitution of the painting were sufficiently compelling for them to advise the Secretary of State that the Sonia Klein Trust is entitled to its return.
The Government welcomed Tate’s full cooperation with this process throughout and its prompt agreement to accept the Panel’s recommendation in full. The Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Act 2009 allows national museums to return cultural objects where the Spoliation Advisory Panel recommends and the Arts Minister agrees. The Spoliation Advisory Panel, along with equivalent committees in France, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, is a member of the Network of European Restitution Committees on Nazi-Looted Art, which promotes international collaboration and information sharing on these issues.
This restitution marks a significant step in the ongoing efforts to right the wrongs of the past and ensure that cultural property stolen during the Nazi era is returned to its rightful owners.
