Books & Publications:
'Paul Graupe, Arthur Goldschmidt and the dispute over an Adriaen van Ostade painting in wartime France '
Title
Paul Graupe, Arthur Goldschmidt and the dispute over an Adriaen van Ostade painting in wartime FranceAuthor
Victoria S. ReedDate
February 2024Description
In 2023 the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the collectors Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, and the heirs of the Jewish art dealers Paul Graupe and Arthur Goldschmidt reached a financial settlement over Adriaen van Ostade’s Customers Conversing in a Tavern. The museum had been alerted to a potential claim on the painting in 2017 while conducting research on promised gifts from the Weatherbies’ collection. At that time, the van Ostade was registered as a Nazi-era loss by the heirs of Graupe. Research revealed that it was handled by Graupe and his associate Goldschmidt when they were trying to flee Nazi-occupied Europe. This article provides insight into the working relationship of Graupe and Goldschmidt, and offers clues to the fate of other works of art placed in their custody which heirs of Holocaust victims may be seeking. It also offers a roadmap for museums navigating similar provenance research, donor relations and collection management questions.
Source
Oxford University Press, published 19 February 2024
Journal of the History of Collections
fhad048
https://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhad048