Painting Seized by Nazis Returned to Heirs of Jewish Owner

Carl Blechen’s ‘Valley of Mills near Amalfi,’ destined for Hitler’s museum, now reunited with the Goldschmidt family's descendants.

German landscape artist Carl Blechen's *Valley of Mills near Amalfi* has been returned to the descendants of its original Jewish owner after being stolen during the Nazi era. The artwork was supposed to be part of Adolf Hitler's planned Führermuseum in Linz, Austria, but it was taken away by the Gestapo in 1942 after being purchased by Dr. D.H. Goldschmidt in Berlin.

Following the November pogroms of 1938, the Goldschmidt brothers, who inherited the painting, died by suicide, and their collection passed to their nephew, Edgar Moor. Moor had emigrated to South Africa, leaving the collection behind in Berlin. In 1944, the painting was bought by Hitler’s 'Special Commission Linz' but never reached its intended destination due to the collapse of Nazi plans.

After the war, the painting was held in storage and later became state property in 1960. Germany’s Federal Art Administration, responsible for investigating Nazi-looted cultural assets, has now restituted the piece to Moor’s heirs, marking the 69th such restitution by the German state.

German Culture Minister Claudia Roth emphasized the importance of these restitutions in acknowledging the suffering caused by the Nazi regime and restoring justice to victims and their descendants.