Art Institute to Return Metzinger Painting to Lewenstein Heirs

The Art Institute of Chicago says it will return Jean Metzinger’s 1913 painting Woman with a Fan to the heirs of Amsterdam art collector Emanuel Lewenstein, after provenance research connected the work to his family and a 1940 auction during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The museum has not said when the transfer will take place and is still working out the logistics. The museum concluded that the painting was sold under pressure or confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution. The precise circumstances of the sale, including who consigned the painting and who received any proceeds, remain unknown. The museum’s executive director of provenance research, Jacques Schuhmacher, said the work appeared in the auction catalog and that the available evidence supported treating the sale as forced. The Art Institute acquired the painting in 1959. Its researchers revisited the work’s ownership history after identifying gaps in its provenance during the World War II period. The museum posted information about the painting online seeking help, and Mondex, a company that represents the Lewenstein heirs, shared family-history information with the museum.