Berlin’s Brücke Museum Returns Drawing to Heirs of German Owner

Berlin’s Brücke Museum, which houses a collection of artworks by 20th-century German expressionists, returned a 1910 drawing by Max Pechstein to the heirs of German economist Hans Heymann, New York authorities said on Monday.

The return comes eight years after members of Heymann’s family filed an initial claim for the drawing, titled Two Female Dancers, in February 2016 through New York’s Holocaust Claims Processing Office (HCPO), an agency that deals with inquiries on works of art displaced during World War II.

“The resolution of this claim was a culmination of the hard work and dedication of the Holocaust Claims Processing Office and its partnership with the Brücke Museum,” said Adrienne A. Harris, the Superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS), a branch that oversaw the return of the drawing to Heyman’s descendants. “This settlement provides a measure of closure and justice for the Heymann family and further preserves Pechstein’s legacy.”

Heymann began collecting Pechstein’s work in 1909. WIth the Nazis having risen to power in Germany, the Heymann family fled the country in 1936, leaving behind their residential property and art collection. The works were later confiscated by German forces and labeled “degenerate art,” a designation that Third Reich officials gave to hundreds of works produced by Jewish artists at the time. The museum purchased the work in 1971 from a gallery in Berlin.

Kendra Heymann Sagoff, one of the Heymann heirs involved in the drawing’s restitution, expressed gratitude for the formalized return. “The HCPO team’s appreciation of the uniquely personal nature of the Heymann Pechstein Memorial collection and their unwavering commitment to justice have resulted in the first restitution of a Pechstein work to the Heymann family in more than 75 years,” she said.

In a joint statement, the Brücke Museum’s Director, Lisa Marei Schmidt, said the successful return is a testament to “ethical, legal solutions” that are often complicated by generational changes and differing policies on restitution.

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