Max Stern is a famous art gallery owner who fled Nazi Germany in 1938 due to the persecution of Jews and bans on certain professions.
Düsseldorf mayor Thomas Geisel. Source: Sergei Savostyanov/TASS/Getty Images
The exhibition devoted to Max Stern was due to open in February, but mayor of Düsseldorf Thomas Geisel cancelled it in November, explaining the move with “current demands for information and restitution in German museums in connection with the Galerie Max Stern,” the New York Times quotes the politician as saying.
After severe criticism from the international community, the mayor of Düsseldorf promised to open the show in October 2018, appoint an advisory board and a curator.
Max Stern in Germany, circa 1925 г. Source: National Gallery of Canada
Mayor Geisel feared that universities Concordia and McGill in Montreal and Hebrew University in Jerusalem would try to recover some works. Max Stern, who died in 1987, left most of his estate to these universities. Some pieces were lost during Stern’s escape from Germany as the Nazi government forced Jewish collectors and gallery owners to sell artworks for nothing.
One of such works, Wilhelm von Schadow’s The Artist’s Children, was Düsseldorf’s collection and once hung in the mayor’s office.
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