The Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim will keep two Pablo Picasso paintings after reaching a settlement with a Jewish German scholar who claimed he was the rightful owner.
Lawyers for Julius Schoeps and the museums told a Manhattan federal judge yesterday the dispute over ownership of “Boy Leading a Horse” and “Le Moulin de la Galette” had been settled.
In 2007, MoMA and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation sued Schoeps, who claimed he was the heir of art collector and banker Paul Robert Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Schoeps contended the banker, his great uncle, was forced give up the paintings in Nazi Germany.
“There will be complete peace between the museums and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and other heirs,” Gregory Joseph, a lawyer for the museums told the court, adding the settlement’s “dollar amount” would remain confidential. “The paintings will remain in the museums.”
US District Judge Jed Rakoff strongly urged both sides to release terms of the settlement, saying it would be “extraordinarily unfortunate that the public would be left without knowing what the truth is.”