Report of the Spoliation Advisory Panel in Respect of a Painting Held by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford

The Panel considers claims from anyone who lost possession of a cultural object, during the Nazi era, that is now in the possession of a UK national collection. This report concerns the claim by the heirs of Jakob Goldschmidt (a prominent German banker and well-known art collector in the 1920s and 1930s) to secure the return of a painting ('Portrait of a Young Girl in a Bow Window', attributed to Nikolaus Alexander Mair von Landshut) now held by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The...
More Description

The Panel considers claims from anyone who lost possession of a cultural object, during the Nazi era, that is now in the possession of a UK national collection. This report concerns the claim by the heirs of Jakob Goldschmidt (a prominent German banker and well-known art collector in the 1920s and 1930s) to secure the return of a painting ('Portrait of a Young Girl in a Bow Window', attributed to Nikolaus Alexander Mair von Landshut) now held by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The Panel concludes that the moral force of the claimant's case is weak and that no moral obligation rests on the Ashmolean, and therefore recommends that the Secretary of State should reject the claim.