The Chamber of Representatives has handed over a painting by German artist Friedrich Nerly to the Preußischer Kulturbesitz Foundation in Germany. After having hung in German Embassy during WWII, the painting ended up in the Federal Parliament. The painting will now become part of the collection at Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
The return of the painting has come about thanks to research by the curator of the parliamentary art collection Sophie Wittemans.
Ms Wittemans told the press agency Belga that "I regularly walked past the painting and wondered how we came to have a painting of a view of Venice. It’s unusual as most of the artworks in the Chamber of Representatives have Belgian subjects". Ms Witteman’s research found that the painted had been added to the collection sometime between 1954 and 1960, during Camille Huysmans’ (socialist) time as Speaker.
German art experts later confirmed that the painted had been listed as missing since 1945. It had last been inventoried in 1934 at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. In 1936 it was lent to the German Embassy in Brussels in 1936 and it had been missing since the end of the Second World War.
It came to be in the Federal Parliament via the Sequester Service that managed art that had been looted or confiscated art during and after WWII.
Friedrich Nerly (1807–1878) was best known for his Venetian cityscapes. Basilica SS Giovanni e Paolo in Venice is considered one of his most important works. It depicts the Gothic Basilica at the heart of Venice.
The official handover ceremony took place on Tuesday afternoon at the Federal Parliament. There the speaker of the Chamber of Representatives Peter De Roover (Flemish nationalist) and the vice-chair of the Preußischer Kulturbesitz Foundation Gero Dimter, Vice-Chair of the Preußischer Kulturbesitz Foundation, signed the act of restitution for the painting. The German ambassador to Belgium, Martin Kotthaus was also in attendance.
