A German commission has ruled that a painting by reporter Erich Heckel housed in a German art museum appears to have been illegally obtained under the Nazis and should be returned to the heirs of a Jewish historian at the it once was, officials said Tuesday.
Heckel had a “Geschwister,” or “Siblings,” by Jewish historian Max Fischer until 1934, the year before he fled Germany to escape Nazi persecution, according to the Baden-Wuerttemberg state commission. on Nazi looted art.


‘Siblings’ by Erich Heckel
(Photo: Kunsthalle Karlsruhe)
The 1913 oil painting was completed by Heckel, and the artist took it to the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe museum in 1967.
The State Commission stated that it was not possible to determine when and in what circumstances Heckel acquired the piece, sometime between January 1934 and January 1944.
The Commission said, however, that with the circumstances, it must be accepted that Fischer, who entered the United States, lost possession of the painting as a result of Nazi persecution. He ordered the work of art to be returned to his heirs.


The heirs, who have not been identified, have said they plan to donate the painting to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Commission said.
Heckel, a founding member of Die Bruecke ‘s emotional artists’ group (The Bridge), died in 1970.