Sotheby's to auction Corot painting
The work of art was seized from a family of Jewish bankers during World War II.
A painting by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot is being put on the auction block at Sotheby's in London at the beginning of June aspart of a sale of works from the 19th century. Jeune femme a la fontaine - which has been valued at approximately $1.5 million (£996,957) - was taken from a family of Jewish bankers during the second world war, with Nazi authorities preventing it from being sent to Switzerland in 1935, Reuters reports.
Following this, it hung in a museum in the Netherlands for 66 years before finally being returned to the heirs of the original owners. Sotheby's noted that this picture is among the finest of Corot's creative outpourings from the 1860s and 70s and it is to be sold onJ une 2nd.
Another recent event at the auction house saw £54.1 million raised through bidding on a number of contemporary art masterpieces, including Yves Klein's 1961 F88, a construction of wood and paper detailing imprints of body, fire and water.