"Restitution of Wilhelm von Schadow's 'Bildnis der Kinder des Künstlers' to Dr. Max and Iris Stern Foundation by the City of Düsseldorf"

In a meeting on Thursday, April 20th, the council of the state capital of Düsseldorf decided to restitute the painting "Portrait of the Artist's Children" (1830) by Wilhelm von Schadow to the "Dr. Max and Iris Stern Foundation". The agreement with the Stern Foundation stipulates that the work will remain in the city's collection through a repurchase.

Mayor Dr. Stephan Keller said, "I am pleased that the significant 'Portrait of the Artist's Children' will remain in Düsseldorf with the fair and just solution that has now been found. As an exhibition piece in the Kunstpalast, it will be accessible to the public again from mid-August."

The restitution of the painting is due to a gap in the provenance that cannot be closed through research. Taking into account the persecution fate of Düsseldorf art dealer Max Stern and his family, the city has decided to return the work. It follows the fourth principle of the Washington Conference of 1998, which states that in finding a fair and just solution, "gaps and uncertainties" in the provenance are inevitable due to the time elapsed and the special circumstances of the Holocaust.

In 1931, the "Portrait of the Artist's Children" was on display at an exhibition at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen as a loan from an art dealer, likely Galerie Julius Stern. Ten years later, the painting can be securely attributed to an owner in Essen.

In 1937, the work was depicted in a picture book about children's paintings published by Langewiesche Verlag. The Galerie Stern provided the photo and printing permission at that time. However, it was not possible to determine who owned the painting at that time. The photo suggests that the Galerie Stern may have traded the painting at some point. However, there is no evidence of the work being part of the gallery's offerings in auction and exhibition catalogs or in its customer database after 1931.

After being briefly in municipal possession at the end of the 19th century, the children's portrait was acquired by the city of Düsseldorf from private ownership in Essen in 1959. It hung in the mayor's office in the town hall until 1977 and was eventually transferred to the art museum (now Kunstpalast).

Galerie Stern in Düsseldorf was founded by Julius Stern in 1917 on Königsallee. His son Max Stern (1904-1987) continued the business after his father's death in 1934. The gallery specialized in Düsseldorf school of painting and was one of the best-known addresses in Düsseldorf's art market at that time, alongside the galleries Flechtheim and Paffrath. Max Stern was eventually forced to give up the business and sell most of his inventory under the persecution of the Nazi regime in 1937. He emigrated to Canada with his family, suffering significant economic losses. In Montreal, the expelled art dealer from Düsseldorf resumed his career in the art trade and, along with his wife Iris Stern, ran the successful Dominion Gallery since 1947.

The council's decision ends a lengthy negotiation phase between the state capital of Düsseldorf and the "Dr. Max and Iris Stern Foundation" amicably. The agreement follows a previous restitution to the Stern Foundation by the city of Düsseldorf: in 2013, the "Self-Portrait of the Artist" by Wilhelm von Schadow was returned. This work had been submitted by Stern for auction in November 1973 and is now on loan from the Stern Foundation to the Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf.