Art Book Ties Donated Work To Nazi Loot Painting By Matisse Was Given To Seattle Museum

A painting by French artist Henri Matisse, given to the Seattle Art Museum by the estate of timber baron Prentice Bloedel, is among those listed as stolen by Nazis in a book on World War II art theft.

“Odalisque,” a 17-1/2-inch-by-21-3/4-inch painting done in 1927 or 1928, shows a woman seated on the floor, her arms around a raised knee.

A black-and-white reproduction appears in the book “The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World’s Greatest Works of Art” by art journalist Hector Feliciano, published two years ago in France and in English translation last spring.

According to the book, the painting originally belonged to Paul Rosenberg, the leading Parisian dealer in 19th and 20th century art after World War I.

Bloedel’s daughter, art collector Virginia Wright, notified museum officials after recognizing the painting in Feliciano’s book.

They contacted Knoedler & Co., the New York City gallery that sold the painting to Bloedel in 1954. When Feliciano heard that the painting apparently had been found, he notified Rosenberg’s heirs, whose lawyers called the museum Friday and followed up with a letter of claim on Monday.

“If their ownership is proven, we would return the painting,” museum spokeswoman Linda Williams said Tuesday.

In 1940, when Germany invaded France, the Knoedler helped Rosenberg and his family, who were Jewish, flee to New York.

The French dealer left behind more than 300 paintings - works by Picasso, Delacroix, Ingres, Matisse, Bonnard, Courbet and Cezanne - that were all stolen by the Nazis.

The gallery sponsored the Rosenbergs as immigrants after a long and friendly relationship, gallery president Ann Freedman said Tuesday. A grateful letter from Rosenberg was displayed last year as part of the gallery’s celebration of 150 years in the business, she noted.

Once resettled in New York, “the Rosenberg gallery was on 58th, we were on 57th - I’m sure we shared clients,” Freedman said.

While the gallery will “do whatever we can to help resolve the matter,” she noted that there may simply have been a mixup, given the chaos of wartime and the close relationship between the gallery and Rosenberg.

“I don’t know that there exists proof of anything stolen,” Freedman said.