A fascinating story on the work of the Max Stern Restitution Project has appeared in the latest issue of The Walrus and is thankfully available online.

The Stern Project, run out of Concordia University in Montreal, Canada has the task of reconstituting the art collection of the famed Düsseldorf dealer, Max Stern. Stern, who was Jewish, fled Nazi Germany in 1937 for England, before emigrating to Canada. Based in Montreal, he ran the Dominion Gallery and became (once again) a celebrated art dealer until his death in 1987.

The Stern Project has been working towards reconstituting Stern’s German collection, many pieces of which are still held in collections across Germany and around the world. In March 2013, for instance, a Renaissance painting from the Stuttgart Museum was returned to the Stern estate. The event marked the tenth restitution in the Project’s ten-year history.

Judging by the works still missing from the collection, however, there is still much work to be done.

Thanks to artist and photographer Gabrielle de Montmollin for sharing this story.