Grosz heirs vs MoMA case dismissed

A judge in New York has dismissed the case made by the heirs of George Grosz, who claimed that three paintings by the German artist in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) were taken and traded during the 1930s, making them Nazi loot, albeit indirectly. On 6 January, the judge, John McMahon, dismissed the challenge to the museum’s ownership of Portrait of the Poet Max Hermann-Neisse (with Cognac Glass), 1927, Self-portrait with a Model, 1928, and Republican Automatons, 1920, on the grounds of the three-year statute of limitations. The estate first asked the museum to hand over the paintings in November 2003, but did not commence its lawsuit until April 2009. MoMA rejected the claim that the paintings, which it acquired between 1946 and 1954, were ever Nazi loot, after researching their complex history (The Art Newspaper, November 2009, p13).