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Carole Mikita ReportingThe Utah Museum of Fine Arts is the center of international focus today, returning a Nazi-looted painting to its rightful owners.
The museum's director says today is a day of both sadness and celebration because the painting had been here for nearly a dozen years, used often in art education programs. It is quite a little gem with an amazing history.
A quiet, picnic scene titled "The Young Lovers" painted in the 1700s by Francois Boucher is now the focus of international attention. Lost for decades from the collection of a French Jewish art dealer who died in 1945. The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is now returning it to his family.
Claude Selignmann Delibes, Andre Seligmann's Daughter: "I'm the daughter of Andre Seligmann. This is a very emotional day for me."
When the Nazis invaded France they looted the art, including the Seligmanns’. Claude Delibes remembers when Hitler's henchman paid her father a visit.
Claude Delibes: "Mr. Goerhing had visited the gallery in 1938, I believe. And my father knew very well who Goerhing was and he threw him out. And Goerhing was very unhappy about this so the first thing he did in 1940 was come with many trucks and take everything out."
The Seligmanns had escaped to America. At the end of the war the painting disappeared from a train in Germany, turned up in Europe, then through a mysterious dealer surfaced in New York City where a Utah collector bought it on good faith, later donating it to the museum.
When a researcher discovered the painting in Utah the museum immediately agreed to return it. Seligmann's family expressed heartfelt gratitude.
Suzanne Seligmann Robbins, Andre Seligmann's Daughter-in-Law: "Honor this museum and the people in it and the University of Utah for what they have done with such honor, with such diligence, with such integrity."
The painting is now on its way to New York City with the family. No decision yet on what to do with it. But should they decide to sell it, and if the museum has a donor willing to buy it, the painting could end up back here. That's a big maybe, but interesting to consider.
