Galleries urged to return 'Nazi' Dürers

The Courtauld Gallery: "Sympathetic" to claims

Two UK galleries are being urged to return masterpieces by Albrecht Dürer which were looted by the Nazis in WWII.

But the galleries maintain they bought the works in good faith and have legal and moral title to them.

The Courtauld Institute Gallery and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts both own works by Dürer which belonged to the Polish Lubomirski family.

There is no case to answer

John Murdoch, Courtauld Institute Gallery

But the works were looted from the Lubomirski museum during the war and found by US troops in an Austrian salt mine in 1945.

The US returned the paintings and drawings to the Lubomirski family who then sold them.

But the question of ownership was complicated by the fact that Lvov, where the Lubomirski museum was situated, became part of the Ukraine after World War II.

Now institutes in both Poland and Ukraine are disputing the ownership claims of the UK galleries - as well as 10 other collections around the world which own Dürers bought from the Lubomirskis.

The Polish Ossolinski Institute also points out that the Lubomirskis had once agreed to return the works to their museum if it was re-established - rather than selling them privately.

Director of the Courtauld Institute Gallery John Murdoch told BBC News Online that the gallery was "listening very sympathetically" to the claims of Poland and Ukraine.

But he maintained that the gallery was the rightful owner of the Dürer masterpiece The Emperors Charlemagne And Sigismund.

"As far as we can see on present evidence, the restitution to the family by the US government authorities after the war was perfectly correct," he said.

'Unimpeachable'

"We heard a very careful review by the US State Department at a recent conference and there is no case to answer."

The Lubosmirskis had an "unimpeachable title" to have the paintings returned and then to sell them, Mr Murdoch told BBC News Online.

And the Courtauld director said that the claims made it less likely that the works would be exhibited in Poland or Ukraine in the near future.

"I think that the trustees would only be prepared to do that if the claim were dropped - museums would be extremely nervous about exhibiting them there now.

"But if our Polish and Ukrainian colleagues would recognise the unimpeachable title and moral title of the present owners, then we could revert to our more generous lending practises," he said.

The Courtauld's Dürer is to be exhibited at the British Museum at the end of 2002.