A British gallery may be forced to give up a prized £500,000 Renoir after claims it could have been seized from its original Jewish owners by the Nazis.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Manchester Art Gallery is now treating the Impressionist painting – known as Seated Nude, from around 1897 – as a potential looted or ‘spoliated’ object.
The gallery has been approached by claimants who believe they may be the rightful owners of the oil painting.
If their claim of ownership is proved, the gallery could be forced to hand over the artwork.
Details of the investigation are included in a document obtained by the MoS under freedom of information laws.
It states: ‘This painting is under investigation as a spoliated object, which means it may have been stolen from or sold under duress by its Jewish owner during the period of Nazi power in Europe.’
Both sides agree that the artwork was once the property of Richard Semmel, a German-born Jewish art collector and entrepreneur.
Semmel and his wife Clara, who fled Germany for Holland in 1933, managed to arrange for the sale of about 70 of their artworks to pay for their living expenses.
It is believed the Renoir nude was offered up for the sale but did not sell.
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