Bruno Lohse - Secret Vault

Secret Vault

In May 2007, the seizure of a secret Zurich bank vault (under Lohse's control since 1978) turned up a valuable Camille Pissarro painting stolen by the Gestapo from a prominent Jewish publisher in Vienna in 1938, as well as paintings of uncertain provenance by Monet and Renoir. According to U.S. historian and looted art expert Jonathan Petropoulos, who "got to know well" in the last decade of his life, the existence of the vault makes it "not only possible, but likely" that Lohse had sold looted artworks in recent decades. Painted in 1903 and the first in Pissarro's last series of Paris city views, "Le Quai Malaquais, Printemps" was restituted later in 2007 by a Liechtenstein court to an heir of Gottfried Bermann Fischer, and ultimately auctioned in November 2009 for $1,850,000 ($2,154,000 with Christie's premium) under its new title, "Le Quai Malaquais et l'Institut".

European prosecutors seized documents confirming that at least 14 paintings left Lohse's safe since 1983, including paintings by Corot and Sisley as well as-yet-unnamed works by Dürer and Kokoschka, among others. An international investigation of Lohse's activities (as well as possible collusion with galleries and auction houses) was opened as of 2006 and currently involves three European countries: Germany, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. According to widely accepted estimates, of the 600,000 artworks looted by the Nazis in World War II, up to 100,000 were destroyed or are still missing.