LOSS TO GERMANY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1070, 6 September 1930, Page 27

LOSS TO GERMANY

FAMOUS PICTURE SOLD INDIGNATION AROUSED Lively indignation is expressed in the democratic papers in Berlin at the sale abroad by the ex-Crown Prince of a famous picture, painted for the occasion of his paternal grandparents’ marriage, says the “Daily Telegraph.” The work in question is Adolf Meozel’s “Wellington and Blucher Greet One Another at Belle Alliance." When the Crown Prince Frederick Wilhelm, afterward Emperor, wamarried to the Princess Royal, leading German artists were commissioned to fill the lunettes of the cupola of the hall in the Berlin Palace with pictures illustrating the relationship of Prussia to Great Britain.

Menzel, then almost at the height of his powers, chose as his subject the meeting of the two great generals on the field of Waterloo. The work is a large one, having a base of Sft and a radius of 6ft. The picture remained in the Palace on Unter den Linden, till the revolution when the ex-Crown Prince had it removed, together with the other artistic treasures there. The picture’s loss to Germany l>. came known only through its appeal ance in the catalogue of the firm of Goudstikker, of Amsterdam. It ap pears, however, that it was offered to the National Gallery about six monthago. Why the offer led to no result

is not made quite clear. It is said that the price demanded was excessive, but also that the gallery took the view that the picture was rightfully State property, and should have been surrendered to it gratuitously. On the other hand, one paper states that the price at which it was actually acquired by Goudstikker “would have been paid gladly by any German museum.” A few years ago a German dealer was commissioned to dispose of some of the art treasures in the possession of the ex-Kaiser, and in consequence a number of valuable pictures left this country. Thus a set of Watteau's was added to a collection in America, a portrait by Titian went to the Copenhagen Museum, and Rubens's “Louis XIII.” was acquired by Sir Joseph Duveen. This disposal was stopped by that jealous guardian of Germany’s artistic honour. Professor Bode, who wrote to the ex-Kaiser protesting against it.