Banker Fritz Gutmann was killed at Theresienstadt, and his heirs sued an American collector to get back his Degas

Fritz Gutmann was a son of Eugen Gutmann, co-founder of Dresdner Bank. He moved to the Netherlands after the First World War and became Dutch in 1924. At Huize Bosbeek in Heemstede he kept his own collection and administered his father's for its six heirs. In 1940 silver went to Göring. In 1941 and 1942 paintings and objects went to the dealers Böhler and Haberstock. The Gutmanns were arrested in 1943. Fritz was murdered at Theresienstadt and Louise at Auschwitz in 1944. Their children survived abroad. Degas's pastel Landscape with Smokestacks had been sent to a Paris dealer in 1939. In 1987 the Chicago collector Daniel Searle bought it for $850,000. The grandsons found it in 1995 and sued in 1996 in Goodman v. Searle. In August 1998, on the eve of trial, the sides agreed to split ownership. Searle gave his half to the Art Institute of Chicago, which bought the heirs' half at appraised value. Each side paid its own lawyers. On 25 March 2002 the Dutch state returned more than 200 objects. A Pietà followed in 2011. In 2012 the Restitutions Committee rejected claims to a Gubbio dish and to a De Wit grisaille, the second because the heirs sold Bosbeek on 29 December 1950. In February 2020 the Metropolitan Museum returned a silver cup. In 2026 the Degas hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago.