Painting Stolen by Nazis Returned to Heirs

TIt was a seemingly hopeless quest to restore a family’s heritage that had a happy ending. The family of German-Jewish art collector Fritz Gutmann searched for his paintings for nearly 80 years. Gutmann and his wife were killed in German death camps after their art collection was taken, probably for Hitler’s use. Their grandson Simon Goodman (the family changed the spelling of the name), wrote a book about the search for his family’s looted art. Then, last year, Christie’s auction house was contacted by people who had possession of a painting they thought might have been part of Gutmann’s  collection. Perhaps they wondered because of information in Goodman’s book? Christie’s identified the painting and it was returned to the heirs, who live in Los Angeles.