The FBI returned to the heirs of the owner a painting stolen by the Nazis during the Second World War.

The FBI gave a photo Monday of the Dutch painter Salomon Koninck 380 years to his rightful owners, a Jewish French family, 75 years after his flight by the Nazis during the invasion of la France in the Second World War.

The work, "A scholar sharpening his pen", painted by Koninck in 1639, was delivered to the Schloss during a ceremony that took place at the French Consulate in New York in the presence of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian.

"Stolen from our territory by the Gestapo and transferred to Munich with the complicity of French collaborators in 1943, we lost track of them," said Le Drian, accompanied by the prosecutor of the southern district of New York. Geoffrey Bermanand a representative of the FBI Criminal Investigation Bureau in Washington, Michael Driscoll.

"Finally, he meets again his new owners, heirs of Adolphe Schloss (collector of French art) and his five children, "added the minister.

Present at the ceremony were the great-grandchildren of Schloss, Laurent and Michel Vernay, and their daughter-in-law, Eliane Demartini, who described the return of the work as a "small victory" and recalled that there are still many stolen and uncovered works of art.

The representative of the French Administration stressed that his country was continuing its efforts to accelerate the identification and return of works stolen under the Hitlerand noted that more than two-thirds of the 100,000 pieces usurped by the Nazis were found shortly after the end of the conflict.

The others, he says, were not found, but France "never went to look for him".

"Some have been destroyed, but over time, the works hidden by thieves reappear on the market, as was the case with the work of Koninck," said the French minister.

"A scholar sharpening his pen" was found in 2017 when his owner, Chilean Renate Stein, contacted Christie's sales house in order to sell it in New York after his family had it acquired in Germany. the 50s

Drian also emphasized in his speech the rise of anti-Semitism today and enumerated the efforts of his government to end it, while denouncing the lack of action of the states. -United.

"Something similar (to France) must be done on the American territory, where too much nostalgia for Nazism hides behind the first amendment freedom of expression to trigger hate propaganda, "he said.

For his part, the New York District District Attorney noted that the looting of works of art in the hands of Jews during World War II "was not only unfair, but also inhumane".

"We have a moral imperative to act, what we are doing now and what we will continue to do," he added.

For his part, the FBI representative explained the difficult investigations that must be conducted in this type of case to demonstrate the origin of the work and stressed the vital importance of the collaboration of auction houses to identify and report stolen coins .