A painting stolen in 1945 has been recovered by the FBI in Chicago and returned to the Bavarian State Collections.
The Bavarian State Painting Collection recently located a missing landscape painting, lost since 1945, with the assistance of the FBI. The investigation and recovery, led by the specialized company Art Recovery International (ARI), revealed that the artwork had been taken from Germany to the United States by an American soldier.
In December of last year, Christopher A. Marinello, attorney and founder of ARI, was first contacted by an individual in Chicago who claimed to possess the stolen painting and was seeking information on how to return it.
According to ARI’s press release, it was alleged that the current owner’s uncle had brought the painting home after serving in the U.S. Army during World War II.
ARI received several images of the painting, but initially, there was no information about the artist or the title of the work.
Marinello and his team collaborated with attorneys from the German firm Wantuch Thole Volhard to identify the artwork as a missing landscape by Lauterer, which was once part of the New Bayreuth Palace collection.