Editing Lucas Cranach the Elder (section)

==Looted Cranachs==
The Nazis had a particular affection for Cranach's work and [[Nazi plunder|looted many paintings]] during the [[Nazi Germany|Third Reich]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Purloined pictures: the Nazi leaders' love of Cranach |url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=MY7E2K301401|access-date=2021-01-10|website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref> This has led to claims for restitution, notably from Jewish collectors who were persecuted or looted by the Nazis. The Nazis looted Cranach's Portrait of John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony (around 1530s) from Jewish art collector [[Friedrich Gutmann|Fritz Gutmann]] before murdering him but the painting was recovered by Gutmann's grandson Simon Goodman eighty years later after decades of searching.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hinckley|first=Catherine|date=|title=Cranach portrait stolen almost 80 years ago returns to heirs of Jewish banker |url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=SY0I0I244151|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180501195326/https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=SY0I0I244151|archive-date=1 May 2018|access-date=2021-01-10 |website=www.lootedart.com|publisher=The Art Newspaper}}</ref>

Cranach's "Cupid Complaining to Venus" passed through in [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s personal collection, causing the National Gallery to research its history, suspecting that it may have been looted.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Gallery seeks info on work once owned by Hitler|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=MY3BUG336041|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124182127/https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=MY3BUG336041|archive-date=24 November 2010|access-date=2021-01-10|website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=|first=|date=|title=National Gallery admits that masterwork may be Nazi loot|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=MOAJ0V169071|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124163348/https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=MOAJ0V169071|archive-date=24 November 2010|access-date=2021-01-10|website=www.lootedart.com|publisher=The Times}}</ref> The diptych ''Adam and Eve'' by Lucas Cranach the Elder has been the focus of a legal dispute between the heirs of the former owner, Dutch art collector [[Jacques Goudstikker]], and the [[Norton Simon Museum|Norton Simon museum]] in California.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=The Battle Over the Norton Simon Museum's Nazi-Looted Cranach Paintings Isn't Over as Lawyers File for a Rehearing|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=T7FVY9741081|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190418043702/https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=T7FVY9741081|archive-date=18 April 2019|access-date=2021-01-10|website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref> In 1999, the Commission for Art Recovery of the World Jewish Congress notified the [[North Carolina Museum of Art]] that its prized Cranach Madonna and Child had been looted by Nazis from the Jewish Viennese art collector [[Philip Gomperz|Philipp von Gomperz]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=|first=|date=|title=A Madonna stolen by Nazis takes a trip home|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=NDE845417641|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124175025/https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=NDE845417641|archive-date=24 November 2010|access-date=2021-01-10|website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=HCPO Gallery: Dr. Philip von Gomperz - biography |url=https://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumer/holocaust/bio/bio_gomperz.htm|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224220413/https://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumer/holocaust/bio/bio_gomperz.htm|archive-date=24 February 2020|access-date=2021-02-26|website=Department of Financial Services}}</ref>

On 20 October 2000 a Budapest court ruled that a Cranach and other paintings claimed by the granddaughter of famous Hungarian Jewish art collector [[Baron Herzog]] that were looted by Nazis with the Hungarian financial police should be returned to her.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Martha Nierenberg's claim for artworks from the Herzog Collection |url=https://www.lootedart.com/MFEU4F76769_print;Y|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314010450/https://www.lootedart.com/MFEU4F76769_print;Y |archive-date=14 March 2017|access-date=2021-01-10 |website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref> In 2012 the heirs of Rosa and Jakob Oppenheimer submitted a claim to the [[National Gallery of Ireland]] for a Cranach painting of Saint Christopher. The museum hired a private provenance researcher, Laurie Stein, to investigate the circumstance of the sale in 1934, and she concluded that the Cranach had not been sold under duress by the Jewish owners.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=National Gallery of Ireland Provenance Research October 2017: 9 October 2017: Restitution claims for three paintings, two by the heirs of Rosa and Jakob Oppenheimer of Berlin, owners of the Margraf group, and one by the heirs of Alfred Weinberger |url=https://www.lootedart.com/SOLE6W108411_print;Y|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502080832/https://www.lootedart.com/SOLE6W108411_print;Y|archive-date=2 May 2019|access-date=2021-01-10 |website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref>

In April 2021 Cranach's "The Resurrection" was sold at auction following a settlement between the heirs of Holocaust victim [[Margarete Eisenmann]] and the art dealer [[Eugene V. Thaw|Eugene Thaw]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ahn|first=Cabelle |date=2021-05-18|title=Old Masters Today #3|url=https://arslongajournal.org/2021/05/18/old-masters-today-3/|access-date=2022-02-17|website=ars longa}}</ref> After being looted, the Cranach had been consigned to Sothebys by Hans Lange and passed through [[Hugo Perls]] and [[Knoedler|Knoedler Galleries]] before being acquired by Eugene Thaw.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Villa|first=Angelica|date=2021-04-16|title=Cranach Painting Sold Under Duress During World War II to Be Auctioned as Part of Legal Settlement |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/cranach-painting-restitution-settlement-christies-sale-1234590040/|access-date=2022-02-17 |website=ARTnews.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=CRANACH DIGITAL ARCHIVE|url=https://lucascranach.org/PRIVATE_NONE-P206|access-date=2022-02-17|website=lucascranach.org}}</ref> Most of the lawsuits last many years and go through several appeals in different courts. A painting by a follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder titled ''[[Lamentation (School of Lucas Cranach the Elder)|Lamentation]]'' and completed in the 1530s, which had been looted from Poland in 1946, was returned to the [[National Museum, Wrocław]] in 2022.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Harris |first=Gareth |date=2020-06-23 |title=National museum in Stockholm to return stolen 16th-century painting to Poland |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2020/06/23/national-museum-in-stockholm-to-return-stolen-16th-century-painting-to-poland |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=The Art Newspaper}}</ref>