US Seeks To Return Painting Looted By Nazis From Ukraine - Justice Dept.

NEW YORK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd March, 2019) US authorities seek to return to Ukraine a painting looted by Nazis more than 75 years ago, the US Department of Justice Attorney's Office of Southern District of New York said in a press release.

"[The US Justice Department] announced today the filing of a civil forfeiture action seeking the return to its rightful owner of a painting looted from a Kyiv museum in Nazi-controlled Ukraine in the closing days of World War II," the release said on Thursday.

According to the text of the complaint filed in Manhattan, "An Amorous Couple," formerly entitled "A Family Portrait" and painted by Pierre Louis Gourdeaux, was gifted in 1924 by art collector Vassily Schavinskii to the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts in Kiev.

Around 1943, the painting was seized by German authorities and exported from Nazi-occupied Ukraine.

The piece was listed as a missing one for more than 60 years until it resurfaced in 2013 on the official website of an auction house located in New York. According to the paperwork, "An Amorous Couple" had been held in a private collection in London and then in Massachusetts.

The FBI investigation established that in 2013, the painting was purchased by a New York art dealer in Missouri and then consigned to the auction under the title of "A Loving Glance."