In the controversy surrounding the appreciation of the Jewish art dealer Max Stern (1904-1987), who was persecuted during the Nazi era, Düsseldorf’s Lord Mayor Stephan Keller (CDU) offered new talks. During the presentation of the exhibition “Disenfranchised and robbed. The art dealer Max Stern” on Tuesday, Keller apologized for the cancellation of the show by his predecessor Thomas Geisel (SPD). The controversy that has arisen since 2017 was “regrettable” and had to be perceived as an affront. After several postponements, the controversial exhibition on Max Stern will be presented to the public for the first time in Düsseldorf on Thursday. Keller promised the Canadian Max Stern Art Restitution Project that it would deal “responsibly” with pending return requests. He is “happy to take up new talks”.
Max Stern managed to escape the Nazi regime to Canada
He hoped that with the end of the exhibition, the time had come to start exchanging ideas with the Max Stern Art Restitution Project. In the Canadian project, three universities are researching works of art from the collection. The experts felt snubbed by Mayor Geisel after the exhibition was surprisingly canceled in 2017. They refused to participate in the exhibition, which has since been redesigned. The Düsseldorf Jewish Community is also not involved. A sore point is the debate about two restitution cases still pending in connection with Max Stern. One of the pictures in question – “The Artist’s Children” (1830) by Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow – is shown in the exhibition. A restitution request from the Max Stern Art Restitution Project has been submitted for the work. Max Stern was forced by German authorities to close down his Düsseldorf gallery in 1937 during the Nazi regime. He was able to flee to Paris and London and came to Canada in 1941.