German bank ordered to give Kandinsky painting back to Amsterdam family

On Tuesday, the German restitution committee ruled that the Bayerische Landesbank must return the painting Das bunte Leben (1907) by Wassily Kandinsky to the heirs of the Lewenstein family. The family from Amsterdam owned the painting before the Nazis took it in the Second World War, Parool reports.

The painting is estimated to be worth about 70 to 80 million euros. The German bank acquired the work in 1972 and loaned it to the Lenbachaus Museum in Munich.

James Palmer of the Mondex Corporation, acting on behalf of the Lewenstein heirs, called the ruling “justice for the victims of National Socialism.”

Last year, the municipality of Amsterdam returned the Kandinsky painting Bild mit Hausern to the Lewenstein family after a long legal battle.

In 2018, the Restitutions Committee ruled that the municipality was not obliged to return it. But Amsterdam decided to do so after a report by the Kohnstamm Committee pointed out the municipality’s responsibility to properly deal with injustice and the irreparable suffering inflicted on Amsterdam Jews during the war.