page_title: Anita Halpin
section_title: Restitution of looted paintings
hierarchical_section_title: Anita Halpin / Restitution of looted paintings
caption_attribution_description: German&#58; Katze hinter einem Baum (Kinderbild)Cat behind a treetitle QS:P1476,de:"Katze hinter einem Baum (Kinderbild)" label QS:Lde,"Katze hinter einem Baum (Kinderbild)"
context_page_description: Anita E. Halpin is an English communist and trade union activist of German-Jewish descent who has been successful in having paintings returned to her that were looted by the Nazis from her grandfather, Alfred Hess, in the 1930s. Several works, such as Berlin Street Scene by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Nude by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, have been returned to her and subsequently sold; the former sold at auction for £20.5 million to the Neue Galerie New York, which also paid over £1 million to Halpin for Nude.
context_section_description: Halpin has made a number of claims for restitution of paintings that were looted from her grandfather, Alfred Hess, and his widow Tekla, by the Nazis in the 1930s.
  In 2006, Berlin Street Scene (1913) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, which had hung in Berlin's Brücke Museum, was returned to Halpin as her grandfather's heir. It had been purchased by the museum using public funds, and had hung there for 26 years, where it was described as "one of Kirchner's best ever works," "one of the most important expressionist German paintings," and the "cornerstone" of the museum's collection. The restitution followed negotiations begun two years earlier, in September 2004, between Halpin and Berlin. Although efforts were made to keep the painting within the city, "financial constraints" prevented such an outcome. The painting was subsequently sold at Christie's auction house in New York City for £20.5 million in November 2006; it stayed in the city, being purchased by the Neue Galerie New York.
  In 2016, she was successful in her claim to have Nude by German expressionist Karl Schmidt-Rottluff returned to her legal ownership by the Neue Galerie New York who had bought it for $800,000 in 1999. It was said to have disappeared from Halpin's grandmother's storage at the Cologne Art Association in 1939, after she fled Germany. The Neue Galerie immediately bought it back from Halpin for a price believed to be above $1 million.
  Halpin has made claims for restitution on a number of other paintings by German expressionists, including The Little Blue Horse (1911) and Cat Behind A Tree (Katze hinter einem Baum (Kinderbild)) by Franz Marc, held by the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and Sprengel Museum respectively; Barefoot Church I (1924) by Lyonel Feininger, also held by the Staatsgalerie; and Judgment Of Paris (1913) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, held by the Wilhelm Hack Museum.
caption: Cat Behind A Tree by Franz Marc
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