The Gallery will be temporarily closed to the public as of April 3.
Formerly on the verso:
– customs stamps from France (Paris-Est), Switzerland
– One undecipherable stamp, round
Prince and Princess Murat, possibly Gaétan-François-Lucien-Joachim, Comte Murat (b.1861) and Caroline-Pauline-Thérèse, Comtesse Murat (1870–1940), Paris, France [1]
– 1949/08/04
Galerie für Alte Kunst GmbH (Walter Bornheim, b.1888), Munich, Germany and Paul L. Drey (b.1885), New York, USA (owned jointly) [2]
1949/08/04 – 1963/05
Paul Drey Gallery, New York, USA, awarded by the Wiedergutmachungsbehörde Oberbayern, Germany, in compensation for damages sustained during the Nazi regime [3]
Private collection, Switzerland (?) [4]
– 1963/05
Paul Drey Gallery [Elizabeth Drey], New York, USA [5]
1963/05 –
National Gallery of Canada, purchased from Paul Drey Gallery [6]
[1] In the bill of sale to issued on May 20, 1963 to the National Gallery of Canada, the Paul Drey Gallery notes that the altarpiece was formerly owned by Prince and Princess Murat of Paris, and later belonged to a private collection in Switzerland [Accession record, NGC curatorial file].
[2] According to restitution documents in the Munich Staatsarchiv, Paul L. Drey and Walter Bornheim shared ownership to an “altar by Narod Cione”[sic] [court order, dated Aug. 4, 1949, Wiedergutmachungsbehörde I, Oberbayern, reference no. I a-937, Staatsarchiv München, NGC curatorial file]. In this document Bornheim's rights to the altarpiece, of which he owned half, were fully transferred to the Drey family as compensation for damages suffered during WW II. In 1935 the Munich art dealership A.S. Drey had been “aryanized”, taken over by Walter Bornheim and renamed “Galerie für Alte Kunst”. The Drey family immigrated to the USA, where the firm operated in New York. According to the restitution documents, the altarpiece was with the Paul Drey Gallery in New York by 1949.
[3] See note [2].
[4] See note [1].
[5] See note [6].
[6] The National Gallery of Canada purchased the altar from the Paul Drey Gallery in May 1963 [Accession records, NGC curatorial file].