(Q97884560)
Statements
1 reference
There was no immediate indication of how The Oyster Meal had come into the hands of Galerie Meissner. But then the CLAE had a breakthrough. It was discovered that Galerie Meissner had sold the painting to Middendorf with a written authentication provided by a German art historian named Walther Bernt, who had described the Ochtervelt as an 'impeccable' work by the artist, and provided a detailed, if truncated, provenance, tracing it from the collection of one Comte de Morny in Paris in 1874, to its acquisition in 1927 by an Amsterdam dealer.After the war, Bernt had presented himself to the Allies offering to help identify art that had been looted by the Nazis and that had been retrieved. 'What he didn't mention,' Anne Webber says, 'was that under the name Walther Berndt he had helped the Gestapo in Prague, advising them on the value of collections that had been seized by the Germans, and that he was familiar with those because before the war he had advised the Jewish owners on what to buy.' In Bernt's archives, held by Harvard University, researchers found a photograph of The Oyster Meal. Written on the back was a reference to Gallery Peiffer, in Düsseldorf. (English)
1 reference
Dr Joan Hendrik Smidt van Gelder, Arnhem;From whose safe in the Amsterdam Bank, Arnhem, looted by Helmut Temmler, Head of the Gaukommando Düsseldorf, in 1945 and taken to Düsseldorf;With Galerie Peiffer, Düsseldorf, 1950s;With Galerie Kurt Meissner, Zurich, 1965;From whom acquired by Ambassador J. William Middendorf II, Washington, by 1967 until 1969 or later, by whom sold to Edward Speelman;With Edward Speelman Ltd., London, by whom sold to Harold Samuel, London, 1971;Bequeathed to the City of London Corporation, 1987;By whom restituted to the heirs of Dr J.H. Smidt van Gelder on 6 November 2017. (English)
1 reference
Provenance Switzerland, possibly shortly after Second World war; *acquired from a Canadian family near Genoa in the 1960's or from a private collection near Zollikon, Switzerland around 1970/1972 by Kurt Meissner (D), Zurich, *Edward Speelman (D), London; bequeathed by Mr. Speelman to NG, 1994 Questions 1933-1945 Whereabouts and provenance until post WWII? Source for information about Switzerland? Provenance between post 1945 and 1960's? (English)
1 reference
Samuel had bought the painting in 1971 from a London dealer, Edward Speelman, who had acquired it four years earlier from an American investment banker and diplomat, J William Middendorf, who at one time served as the US ambassador to the Netherlands. Middendorf, in turn, had bought the painting in 1965 from a Swiss gallery, Galerie Kurt Meissner in Zurich. But there the trail went cold.Switzerland was a notorious clearing house for stolen art (English)