Henri Matisse Marc Chagall Auguste Rodin Paul Klee Max Beckmann Lovis Corinth Edvard Munch London Gallery Stroll

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Curt Glaser was an art historian, critic, and the director of Berlin's Art Library. In April 1933, three months after the Nazis came to power, he was suspended from his job and evicted from his apartment. He sold the works at auction the next month to the Kunstmuseum, and left for Switzerland in October.

Glaser's heirs argue that he had no choice but to sell the works, by artists including Munch, Beckmann, Chagall, Matisse, Klee, and Rodin. Basel argues that the museum paid fair market prices.

Last September, the German city of Hanover returned to the heirs a painting by Lovis Corith that Glaser sold at about the same time. In a statement, Hanover cited the Washington principles—an accord on the restitution of Holocaust-era assets signed by 44 countries, including Switzerland, in 1998—and a German declaration from 1999 demanding that art sold under duress be treated the same as looted art.

Michael Koechlin, the head of Basel's culture department, told Blooomberg, "The Kunstmuseum paid prices typical for the time and our decision was that the Washington principles do not apply in this case."