Department of Financial Services Announces Return of Painting to Heirs of Family Persecuted by Nazi Regime

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) Acting Superintendent Kaitlin Asrow, the Bavarian Ministry of Science and the Arts, and the Bavarian State Painting Collections today announced at a ceremony at the German Embassy in Washington, DC, that a painting lost as a result of Nazi persecution has been returned to the heirs of its rightful owner. The painting, Albert Lang’s Music (Arcadian Scene), 1892, which had been held by the Bavarian State Painting Collections, was recovered with the assistance of the DFS Holocaust Claims Processing Office (HCPO) and returned with the cooperation of the Bavarian government.  

The painting belonged to Sofie Heilbronner née Wimpfheimer. During the Nazi regime, Heilbronner was forced to sell some of her belongings and fled Germany in 1938 to the United States to escape racial persecution. Shortly before leaving Germany, she packed her household goods, including several works of art, into crates to ship to New York. Her belongings were subsequently seized by the German government and auctioned off, with the sales proceeds being confiscated by the Nazi regime. In 2015, the Bavarian State Painting Collections posted the Lang painting on the Lost Art Database. The painting was among several artworks that were expropriated from unidentified Jewish collections, later found in storage at a Munich warehouse and transferred to the museum in 1955 by the Bavarian State Office for Asset Management and Restitution.  

In 2018, the Heilbronner heirs reached out to the HCPO for assistance in locating and recovering Heilbronner’s lost art works. Additional research undertaken by the HCPO identified the painting in the museum as being identical to the lost Lang painting, and the office filed a claim for the work’s restitution. 

"This restitution is a testament of the dedicated work of DFS’s Holocaust Claims Processing Office and the strong partnership with the Bavarian State Painting Collections," said Acting Superintendent Asrow. "As we celebrate the legacy of Sofie Heilbronner, the Department is committed to working in partnership with government agencies, cultural institutions, nonprofits, and others to recover lost funds and artwork on behalf of survivors and their families." 

Deputy Chief of Mission Martin Thümmel underscored Germany’s enduring commitment to restitution, stating: “Germany accepts its historical responsibility for the crimes perpetrated against German and European Jews and other groups under the Nazi regime. The return of Nazi-looted or -stolen cultural artifacts to their rightful owners is a priority for the German government. This return, like many others, was only possible due to the network of experts in both Germany and the United States who have worked tirelessly to reunite survivors or their families with their lost possessions. Germany is fully committed to the Washington Principles and to actively pursuing the restitution of Nazi-looted art. Last year, the German government – incl. at the federal, state, and local levels – established the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-looted Art to enable families to pursue their claims against public institutions through binding legal arbitration. With this new court, Germany has taken another step in honoring its responsibility towards victims of the Nazi regime and their families.” 

“The return of this painting corrects a longstanding historical wrong and restores to us an important piece of our heritage,” said Paul Laporte, great-grandson of Sofie Heilbronner, speaking on behalf of all the heirs. “More than a work of art, it once hung in the Heilbronner home in Munich and remains a tangible connection to a life and world irrevocably altered by the Holocaust. It is one of few surviving witnesses to our family’s life in Germany before persecution and displacement. I thank Anton Biebl of the Bavarian State Painting Collections and Rebecca Friedman of the Holocaust Claims Processing Office for their professionalism and commitment in bringing this restitution to fruition. We are deeply grateful to all those whose integrity and diligence helped make this moment possible. Their efforts ensure that this piece of our story can once again be reunited with the descendants of those to whom it originally belonged.” 

Anton Biebl, Director of the Bavarian State Painting Collections said, “The return of unlawfully seized works of art remains an essential element of historical responsibility and justice. The Bavarian State Painting Collections remains committed to conducting thorough research into the provenance of its holdings and to making restitutions of unlawfully seized works.” 

Markus Blume, State Minister of Education and Art said, “The traces of Nazi-looted art still reach into the present day. Sofie Heilbronner was the victim of racial persecution, stripped of her possessions, and forced to flee – her personal fate is emblematic of countless Jewish families of that era. For decades, the history of this painting remained shrouded in mystery. It was only through intensive provenance research that its history could be reconstructed. We owe the success of this case to dedicated research work and international cooperation. Every case that is resolved is an important step towards historical justice.” 

The Holocaust Claims Processing Office was established in 1997 to help Holocaust victims and their descendants recover lost assets, including dormant bank accounts, unpaid proceeds of insurance policies, and artworks stolen or sold under duress. It is the only government entity in the world that provides such comprehensive services free of charge or commission. To date, HCPO has helped return over $184 million in assets to victims’ families while also resolving claims involving over 370 cultural objects.