This extraordinary rocky Italian landscape painted by Carl Blechen and was purchased by the Kunsthalle in 1969. At that time the museum knew nothing of the paintings origin or that it had been part of the former collection of Rudolf Mosse. It wasn’t until a claim for restitution arrived from an American law firm in 2014 that its connexion with the Mosse collection came to light.

When  Rudolf Mosse died in 1920 his publishing company was taken over by his son-in-law Hans Lachmann-Mosse. But in September 1932 as a consequence of the great depression and increasing political pressure, he was forced to file for bankruptcy. Research into the demise of the publishing house has revealed that the ensuing bankruptcy proceedings were not conducted fairly. Hans Lachmann-Mosse and his wife Felicia were subjected to the persecutions of the Nazis.

Immediately after the Nazi takeover in 1933 their home was forcibly entered by Hitler’s storm troopers and the couple were compelled to transfer their remaining assets to a foundation which ended up in the hands of the German Reich. This expropriation took place under the threat of violence. According to archival records there was a loaded pistol on the table throughout arms. Hans and Felicia Lachmann-Mosse signed the contract with the foundation. Immediately afterwards they had to leave Germany.

In the spring of 1934 the Mosse families art collection was compulsively auctioned off in the Rudolf Lepke auction house in Berlin. The proceeds of the sale went to the German state. With the dispersal of the collection the name of Rudolph Mosse one of the great collector personalities of imperial Germany was also erased from living memory. On the basis of this now known history Blechens Italian landscape along with all the other 324 artworks from the former Mosse collection, which were auctioned off in 1934, must be categorised as Nazi confiscated property.