Press Release

Matisse ‘Odalisque’ in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam to be returned to the heirs of Albert Stern

London, 25 June 2024: The Commission for Looted Art in Europe is pleased to announce the restitution of ‘Odalisque’ by Henri Matisse to the heirs of Albert Stern (1861-1945) whom the Commission represents.



The painting has been in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam since 19 July 1941 when it was sold under duress by Albert Stern in an ultimately failed effort to save the lives of all his family.

Today the Dutch Restitutions Committee published its binding opinion that the painting should be returned to the heirs. The Amsterdam City Council, which has owned the painting, has agreed to return it. The Restitutions Committee stated that the investigation conducted by the Commission for Looted Art in Europe conclusively demonstrated that the family was subjected to persecution from 1933 onwards, first in Germany where they lived and then from 1937 in the Netherlands where they had fled and where they were gradually stripped of their possessions and their livelihood. They made several unsuccessful efforts to escape and eventually were forced to sell their remaining possessions to try to survive.

Albert Stern was one of the most successful textile manufacturers in Germany. In 1888, together with his brother Siegbert and partner Julius Graumann, he established the Berlin textile manufacturing company Textilhaus Graumann & Stern which by the end of the 19th century was one of the leading ladies' clothing manufacturers in Germany, a retailer and a major exporter of ready-to-wear women's coats and suits.

In 1900 Albert and Siegbert Stern commissioned the Berlin architect Otto Rieth to build the company’s new headquarters at Mohrenstrasse 36-37, in the centre of Berlin, which is today the seat of the German Federal Ministry of Justice. With branches in New York, London, Copenhagen and Amsterdam, Graumann & Stern thrived until the Nazis came to power.

In 1912 Albert and his wife Marie commissioned the German architect Hermann Muthesius to build ‘Haus Stern’, a beautiful Arts and Crafts house in the Berlin suburb of Nikolassee where the family lived until 1936, part of a circle of artists, writers, musicians, collectors and art critics. Concerts were held in the house where the young wunderkind violinist Yehudi Menuhin is known to have performed. Marie Stern had studied art and painting in Munich before her marriage and was responsible for the family collecting modern and contemporary art which hung on the walls of the family home.

From January 1933, everything in the lives of the Stern family was to change. Within six years, the Nazis had expropriated the business, its building, the family’s home and its possessions together with most of their assets, and the family had gone into exile.

In Amsterdam, Albert and Marie Stern made repeated efforts to obtain visas for themselves, their children and grandchildren. They tried the USA, Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay, Brazil, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, all unsuccessfully. By October 1940, then nearing 80, Albert wrote that he had lost all his wealth and had been maintaining his adult children and their families for several years as a result of the expropriations, discrimination, loss of income, loss of work, loss of profession and persecution they had endured.

He continued to try and enable the family to escape. But by July 1941, they had little food, had to move apartment, and were selling whatever was left, including the Matisse, in a last effort to flee Europe. To little avail. The entire family were arrested and deported. Albert Stern perished in the Laufen internment camp in January 1945. His two sons, Erich and Rudolf were murdered, Erich at Auschwitz in October 1944 aged 48 and Rudolf in Buchenwald in March 1945 aged 33. Rudolf’s two children were arrested by the Gestapo in April 1944 and deported to Theresienstadt at the ages of just 5 and 16 months. Only Marie and the two grandchildren were to survive the Nazis, though Marie was to die in 1952 at the age of 73.

In a statement, the heirs said:

“The return of the Matisse is a moving and overwhelming moment for us all. Our grandparents loved art and music and theatre, it was the centre of their lives. In the few years we had with our grandmother after the war, she transmitted that love to us, and it has enriched our lives ever since.

The Matisse underwent the same journey from Berlin to Amsterdam as our grandparents. But it stopped there in the Stedelijk, with almost no acknowledgement from whence it came for eighty years. The family has carried the scars of its unbearable and tragic history alone. Now finally, thanks to the Dutch Restitutions Committee, this is being acknowledged. The painting is being returned to us, the rightful owners, and with it our own history.

The decision has provided symbolic justice to our grandfather. We want to thank everyone involved in the decision. We are grateful to the Dutch Restitutions Committee for making the final decision and for handling the claim so expeditiously, and to the Amsterdam City Council and the Stedelijk Museum for acknowledging our rights to the painting, and we express our sincerest gratitude to Anne Webber and to the Commission for Looted Art in Europe for persistently supporting our claim for the restitution of the painting.”


Further informaton:

For further details please contact:

Anne Webber CBE
Co-Chair
Commission for Looted Art in Europe
T: +44 (0)20 7487 3401
E: annewebber@lootedartcommission.com

Issue date: 25th June 2024

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