Andrea Boscoli, The miracle of the donkey - Scene from the life of St. Anthony of Padua. Pen and brown ink, brown wash, 23 x 16 cm (9 x 6,2 inch ). At lower right with the collector's stamps Boguslaw Jolles (Lugt 382) and Jan Pietersz. Zoomer (Lugt 1511).
MUNICH.- A claim for restitution of a drawing by the Florentine painter and draftsman Andrea Boscoli (1560-1607) in the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Munich was lodged by the heirs of Dr. Michael Berolzheimer (1866-1942) in a letter from the Holocaust Claims Processing Office dated June 5, 2012 . The drawing is to remain in the Munich collection against payment of financial compensation. Based on research conducted by the Holocaust Claims Processing Office, Department of Financial Services, New York, and subsequent investigations on the part of the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Munich, it became evident that the work, depicting a scene from the life of St. Anthony, was once part of the collection of Dr. Berolzheimer, who due to his Jewish origin was dispossessed by the National Socialists and forced to emigrate. At the time of the SGSM's acquisition of the work from Ketterer, auction of May 5-6, 2003 (282th Auction, “Tremmel Collection”), the “Berolzheimer” provenance was unknown. The case is a textbook example of how crucial basic research is in determining Nazi injustices with respect to fellow citizens of Jewish origin. Only by means of careful, step-by-step provenance research can the ownership of art works during the 1930s and 40s be determined and light be brought into the darkness of dispossession cases.
Until being compelled to leave Germany , Dr. Berolzheimer was evidently a member of the “Vereinigung der Freunde der Staatlichen Graphischen Sammlung München e.V.”. This prompted his heirs to generously agree, in view of the injustice he suffered, to relinquish the drawing to the Association of Friends in 2014, enabling it to remain in the museum in memory of its former supporter.