17/01/2002

12 art museums in the US, the UK, Canada and the Netherlands including The Art Institute of Chicago, the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam and the Courtauld Institute in London have been requested to return 24 drawings by the 16th century German artist Albrecht Dürer after they were dispersed following the Second World War. The Ossolinski Institute in Wroclaw, Poland and the Stefanyk Scientific Library in Lvov in Ukraine have both filed claims for ownership. The works were looted by Nazi forces during the Second World War from the Lubomirski museum in Lvov, Poland (now in Ukraine) and were found in an Austrian salt mine in 1945 and then handed over by US occupying forces to the Lubomirski family, in Lvov. The family however resold the works, rather than returning them to Lvov and hence dispersing the collection around the world. Directors of the 12 museums met on the 4th of December at the Metropolitan Museum, New York to discuss the claims but maintain that they bought the paintings in good faith and that their ownership is not in question. (Andrew Moore)