The Uffizi Gallery in Florence on Tuesday appealed to Berlin for help in retrieving a stolen still-life painting by the eighteenth-century Dutch painter Jan van Huysum from a German family.
“An appeal to Germany for 2019: We wish that the famous Vase of Flowers by Dutch painter Jan van Huysum that was stolen by Nazi soldiers be returned to the Uffizi Gallery,” the museum’s German director Eike Schmidt said to AFP.
According to Schmidt, the painting is “currently held by a German family who, after all this time, has still not returned it to the museum despite many requests by the Italian state.”
Before it was stolen during World War II, the still-life, which measures 47×35 cm, was part of a the Palazzo Pitti’s collection. After being shipped to Germany the work’s whereabouts remained unknown until 1991, after Germany was reunified, Schmidt said.
The director hung a black and white copy of the painting at the Uffizi Gallery, with the word “stolen” in English, German and Italian on it. The museum Tweeted the following pictures:
“La Germania restituisca a #Firenze il dipinto rubato dai #nazisti“. Appello del direttore Eike Schmidt. Il quadro “Vaso di fiori” di Jan van Huysum fu sottratto a Palazzo #Pitti da soldati della #Wehrmacht durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale https://t.co/25YQThFmmk pic.twitter.com/rImfrC918L
— Gallerie Uffizi (@UffiziGalleries) 1 januari 2019