Art dealer brings back Saxony war loss

A Dutch art dealer has bought a work lost since World War II from Dresden's Old Masters Picture Gallery and given it to Saxony as a gift. "Here, in the sanctuary of art, it is where landscape has belonged for 300 years," said Willem Jan Hoogsteder from The Hague on Monday at the ceremonial handover of the "Campagna Landscape" by Dutch painter Jan Baptist Weenix (1621-1660) in the Semper Building at the Zwinger.

A story associated with war and destruction is finding "a happy ending," said Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU). "The donation is a provenance thriller," said Ronald van Roeden, ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It would not have been conceivable without existing trust and expertise in both countries. In addition, he said, two things played a role: the conviction "that the painting belongs here and the trust that it is in the best hands here." Marion Ackermann, general director of the Dresden State Art Collections (SKD), spoke of a "unique and exemplary model case on the one hand."

The landscape had been in Dresden's Royal Collection of Paintings since its acquisition in 1747. From 1937, the work was lent to Chemnitz, and during World War II it was moved to the Ore Mountains. "Then it was stolen by a Russian general," Hoogsteder said. In 1984, his father bought it at a Christie's auction in New York. "It was auctioned off two more times." Although the landscape was reported missing in 1963, no one ever connected it with the Dresden painting, despite the old inventory number 3105.Then, in 2022, a Dutchman contacted Hoogsteder and asked if he could sell it for him, Hoogsteder recounted. During the now customary provenance research, the connection had become clear.

The "Campagna Landscape" can be seen from Tuesday and for a year at the old location - together with two other war losses returned in the recent past. These are works by the German Balthasar Denner (1685-1749) and the Italian Vincenzo Spisanelli (1595-1662). According to Ackermann, the SKD is still missing nearly 6,000 objects - so far just under 650 wartime losses have been returned.