The Allentown Art Museum has announced that a 16th-century portrait attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop will be auctioned in January 2025. The painting, titled “Portrait of George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony,” has been in the museum’s collection since 1961.
The decision to auction the painting comes after the museum received a restitution claim from the descendants of Henry and Hertha Bromberg, a Jewish couple who fled Nazi Germany during World War II. The Brombergs sold their collection and left Europe in 1938, eventually settling in the United States. The painting was inherited by Henry Bromberg from his father, and the timing and location of the sale were points of contention in the restitution claim.
Despite the disagreement, the museum and the descendants were able to reach a compromise, and the proceeds from the auction will be shared between the museum and the Bromberg family in an undisclosed arrangement. The auction house has not released a valuation of the piece yet.
Max Weintraub, the museum’s president and CEO, stated that they considered the ethical dimensions of the painting’s history before making the decision to auction it. The descendants of the Brombergs expressed their satisfaction with the fair and just solution, as they continue to seek around 80 other pieces from their family collection.
In recent years, the Bromberg descendants have successfully recovered several other works from their family collection, including a 16th-century portrait attributed to Joos van Cleve and three paintings by Joachim Patinir. The museum will display the Cranach portrait alongside another piece owned by a German-Jewish family before World War II to illustrate the different trajectories of the artworks during and after the Nazi period.
Lucas Cranach the Elder, born in 1472, was a prolific German Renaissance painter known for his portraits of Martin Luther. Christie’s specialists are currently conducting an analysis of the painting to confirm its attribution to Cranach and his workshop.
The decision to auction the painting highlights the ongoing efforts to address the restitution of artworks that were lost during World War II. The museum’s voluntary act to return the painting to the Bromberg family sets an example for other institutions to reach fair and just solutions in similar cases.
