A pastel drawing by Pablo Picasso, titled Head of a Woman, which has been part of the National Gallery of Art's collection since 2001, was returned to the owner's relatives last week and will now be sold by Larry Gagosian.
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The drawing, dating to 1903 and Picasso's Blue Period, was in the collection of prominent German Jewish banker and art collector Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. His family founded the Mendelssohn & Co. bank in Berlin in 1795, one of Europe's largest banks, which counted the Russian imperial family as clients. He was also related to the composer Felix Mendelssohn. In 1938, the Nazis handed over the assets of the bank to Deutsche Bank. In the years prior to the bank's closure, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was forced to sell his impressive art collection, which included multiple paintings by Picasso, to German art dealer Justin Thannhauser because of his dire financial circumstances.
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In the decades since, relatives of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy have sued museums and foundations that acquired works from the collection for restitution, claiming they were sold under duress. In 2009, settlements were reached between the heirs and the Guggenheim Museum and MoMA, which respectively hold Picasso's Le Moulin de la Galette and Boy Leading a Horse, once part of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's collection and sold to Thannhauser in 1934. Both museums continue to own the works as part of the settlements, details of which were not revealed. In light of these lawsuits, the National Gallery of Art announced in a statement that they returned the drawing on March 30 “to avoid the heavy toll of litigation”, though it does “not constitute an acknowledgment of the merit or validity of the asserted claims.”
The heirs have entrusted the sale of the drawing to top art dealer Larry Gagosian, who has set the price at $10 million.
