Expert Opinion - Nazi Looted Art

Summary 1932-1938 and thereafter:
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1. In Thuringia [Erfurt] expressionist works of art, such as those collected by
Alfred and Thekla Hess, became subject to Nazi attacks as early as 1930.
2. There is no proof that any artworks from the Alfred Hess collection were sold
in order to overcome economic difficulties in the years 1931/32.
3. After they left Erfurt in September/October 1932, Thekla and Hans Hess tried
to find a suitable repository for the collection in domestic or foreign
museums.
4. The most valuable part of the collection reached the art museum in Basel
and a year later the Kunsthaus Zurich. It was declared to be on loan for
exhibition purposes. Some of the works, including “Berlin Street Scene” by
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, were shown at exhibitions in these museums in 1933
and 1934.
5. Hans Hess fled the Nazis in 1933 and arrived in Paris without funds. His
mother, Thekla, continued to stay in Germany and traveled abroad
repeatedly.
6. Both tried, especially with the help of the director of the Kunsthaus Zurich, to
avoid the threat of punitive action on the part of the German authorities, due
to the transfer of some of the Hess collection outside of Germany and the
potential infringement of German tax and foreign exchange regulations.
7. The evidence shows that in 1934 Thekla and Hans Hess were forced for the
first time to sell two watercolors to maintain their subsistence.
8. In the subsequent two years, Thekla Hess had to sell more pictures due to
the dire living conditions which she and her son suffered. She sent artworks
to Thannhauser (the art dealer in Berlin), to the museum in Erfurt, and to the
Cologne Kunstverein. Some of these works were sold, including Ernst
Ludwig Kirchner’s “Berlin Street Scene,” at the end of 1936, beginning of
1937. With respect to this sale, there is no evidence as to either the price
paid or as to who obtained the purchase price.
9. At the end of 1936, Thekla Hess, confronted with foreign exchange demands
by the Kunsthaus Zurich (for the storage costs), begins to draw the attention
of the Nazi authorities who, it can be assumed, ordered her to return the
artworks stored in Switzerland to Germany.
10. In 1937 a majority of the artworks were sent to the Cologne Kunstverein,
whose director, Klug, carried out additional sales.
11. Following the November pogrom, Thekla Hess fled in early April 1939 to her
son in London and no longer had access to the artworks left in Germany. At
least 40 paintings were lost in Germany.