Triptychon. Anbetung der Könige zwischen Jacobus und Sebastian

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1949

C – The provenance from 1933 to 1945 has not been conclusively clarified; gaps in the ownership history remain. According to current research, there is no evidence of Nazi-looted art. There are, however, implications of Nazi-looted art and / or conspicuous circumstances.

This altarpiece by Jan Provost was once in the collection of the art dealer Charles Sedelmeyer, who had made his adopted home in Paris. Its whereabouts after his death in 1925 have not yet been established. A photo of the altar bears an inscription listing the Russian-Jewish art dealer Vitale Bloch and Curt Benedict, director of Galerie van Diemen & Co. in Berlin, as further owners of the work. Bloch was of Jewish origin, and attempted to shield himself against persecution by working together with Nazi functionaries. It has not yet been possible to ascertain when and in what relationship Bloch and Benedict held the work. Finally, the work was acquired in 1949 by the Nobel Prize winner in chemistry and art collector Leopold Ruzicka, via Bloch; Ruzicka passed it to the Kunsthaus Zürich on loan that same year, before it was later acquired in 1996. The possibility that it constitutes cultural property confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution cannot currently be ruled out. State of research 30.06.2023 Do you have questions, criticism, suggestions, and further information? Please send us a message to provenienzforschung(at)kunsthaus.ch.

- Kunsthaus Zürich. Gesamtkatalog der Gemälde und Skulpturen, hrsg. von Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft et al., Sammlungskatalog, Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2007, S. 31. - Max J. Friedländer: Early Netherlandish Painting, Bd. 9 von 14, Leyden: Sijthoff, 1973, No. 125 [Joos van Cleve, Jan Provost, Joachim Patenier]. - Gemälde der Ruzicka-Stiftung (Text: L. Ruzicka), Ausst.-Kat. Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich: Kunsthaus Zürich, 1949, No. 25.