Pizza giant Dr. Oetker is off looted art

bielefeld - The large family business Dr. Oetker has a painting in the fifties was purchased at auction, returned to the original Jewish owners. The work of Hans Thoma (1839-1924), Frühling im Gebirge / Children's Own, was purchased by Rudolf August Oetker (1916-2007) in 1954.

The painting is one of four works from the extensive collection Oetker identified by a researcher as works of art looted by the Nazis or extorted from Jewish owners. In 2015 an investigation into the origin. A spokesman for the company all four paintings to the original owners or their survivors. Who are they, was not disclosed.

The Nazi regime (1933-1945) plundered extensively certain kinds of art, first at home and then among Jews but where art had to pick, as in museums in occupied countries. There were special organizations that are exclusively concerned with the art theft. Nazi official Hermann Goering (1893-1946) interfered personally with the looting and was there for instance in July 1940 in Amsterdam.