The Flechtheim Paintings: Inside Germany’s Most Complicated Art Restitution Battle
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The legendary Jewish gallery owner Alfred Flechtheim lost dozens of precious paintings during the Nazi era. For years, his heirs have been fighting for their rights to many paintings that now hang in Germany’s top museums. It is one of the most complicated art restitution cases the country has ever seen.
The city of Berlin has affixed a memorial plaque to the front of the magnificent art nouveau building on Bleibtreu Strasse. It reads: “Alfred Flechtheim, art dealer, publisher and friend of modern art, lived in this building from 1923 to 1933. In 1933, Alfred Flechtheim was forced to emigrate. He died in exile in London.”
Flechtheim must have experienced good times in his nine-room apartment, where he played host to the stars of the Weimar Republic — actors, artists and athletes. But then the dark days began.
Michael Hulton, his grand nephew, still refers to him as “Uncle Alfred” today. Hulton, 66, an affable, soft-spoken man, now lives in San Francisco. His grandparents came from Berlin, and his grandmother was Flechtheim’s sister-in-law. The family name was still Hulisch at the time. Hulton grew up in London and later studied medicine at Cambridge.
‘I Want Justice’
For the last four years, Hulton has made regular trips to Berlin, where he rents a room at Pension Gudrun, in the house next door on Bleibtreu Strasse. “I want justice,” says Hulton.
He is referring to his inheritance, which consists of works of art that Flechtheim owned and either went missing or had to be sold during the Nazi era. They consist of 11 paintings and six works on paper, which are now owned by German museums, including works by Pablo Picasso, Max Beckmann and Paul Klee. Paintings from the Flechtheim collection also hang in American museums. Hulton and his attorney, Markus Stötzel, estimate the market value of the estate at €100 million ($124 million).
This case of art restitution is probably the biggest and most complicated one of its kind in Germany.