German Bank Returns Kandinsky Painting to Heirs of Original Jewish Owners Persecuted by Nazis

Shiryn Ghermezian

A partial view of The Colorful Life by Wassily Kandinsky. Photo: Ermell via Wikimedia Commons

A state bank in Bavaria, Germany, has agreed to return an artwork by famed Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky to the family of a Dutch Jewish couple who originally owned the painting in the Netherlands, The New York Times reported on Monday.

Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) said in a statement that it will follow a recommendation of the German independent advisory commission on Nazi-confiscated cultural property, which advised that the 1907 painting Colorful Life should be returned to the heirs of Hedwig Lewenstein Weyermann and Irma Lewenstein Klein.

“Every restitution is important to the families of persecuted victims as it provides them with a sense of healing, justice and dignity,” James Palmer, who represents the heirs, told The New York Times.

Emanuel A. Lewenstein, an art collector and director of a sewing machine factory, and his wife, Hedwig Lewenstein Weyermann, lived in Amsterdam and purchased Colorful Life in May 1923. Starting in 1933, after her husband’s death, Weyermann loaned the painting to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. After her death, the painting came into the possession of her son, Robert Gotschalk Lewenstein , and his then-wife, Irma Lewenstein Klein.

“Every restitution is important to the families of persecuted victims as it provides them with a sense of healing, justice and dignity,” James Palmer, who represents the heirs, told The New York Times.

Emanuel A. Lewenstein, an art collector and director of a sewing machine factory, and his wife, Hedwig Lewenstein Weyermann, lived in Amsterdam and purchased Colorful Life in May 1923. Starting in 1933, after her husband’s death, Weyermann loaned the painting to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. After her death, the painting came into the possession of her son, Robert Gotschalk Lewenstein , and his then-wife, Irma Lewenstein Klein.