The Destiny Of Rubens’ “Conversion of St Paul” Decided By Court

In a recent ruling, the UK’s Spoliation Advisory Panel supported the preservation of three paintings by Peter Paul Rubens in the esteemed collection of the Courtauld Institute in London. This decision follows a thorough review of numerous claims regarding the ownership of the disputed works of art.

The Spoliation Advisory Panel advises the UK Government on claims for cultural property looted during the Nazi era.

Disputed were three artworks of peter Paul Rubens:

“St Gregory the Great with Saints Maurus and Papianus and St Domitilla with Saints Nereus and Achilleus”

“The Conversion of St Paul”

and “The Bounty of James I Triumphing Over Avarice”.

The story is quite complicated. Until 1935, the paintings were the property of a certain Franz Wilhelm Koenigs. In 1935, Koenigs gave the paintings to the Dutch bank Bankierskantoor Lisser & Rosenkranz as sicurity for a loan that Koenigs wanted to receive. The bank was owned by a Jewish family. In 1940, in anticipation of the imminent Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, the bank was liquidated and all of the bank’s assets were sold off, including Rubens’ paintings.

Now, both the grandchildren of Koenigs and the descendant of the former owner of the bank have unanimously declared their right to own those three of Rubens’s paintings.

However, the British court concluded that the applicants had neither legal nor moral rights to own the three paintings. Therefore, the paintings will remain in the museum… as their former owner, Franz Koenigs, wanted. 

How satisfied are Konigs’s heirs with the court’s decision and will they make another claim to own Rubens’ masterpieces?

Source: gov.uk