Ben Uri Gallery, The London Jewish Museum of Art has strongly supported the global restitution effort since its reincarnation in January 2001, when Anne Webber, Co Chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, generously facilitated a valuable seminar during our re-launch programme.

I write to you ahead of press reports to tell you that Ben Uri has been awarded the exclusive world wide distribution rights for eight years until 2015 to tour the ‘Nazi Looted Art’ exhibition ‘Auktion 392; Reclaiming the Galerie Stern, Düsseldorf’.

This ground breaking exhibition, curated by Dr Catherine MacKenzie of Concordia University Montreal, launched there last year, then toured to New York earlier this year and will be exhibited at Ben Uri from the 16 September to 25 November this autumn. It tells the story of Dr Max Stern (1904-1987), who successfully ran his family’s art gallery in Düsseldorf from 1933. The exhibition traces his life from 1935, when his accreditation was withdrawn for being Jewish, to 1937 when his gallery was forced to close with 17 days' notice by the Gestapo and the remains of his ‘galerie’ stock was forcibly under-sold by Lempertz Auctioneers in Cologne.

Stern escaped to Paris and then to London, where he dealt in Old Master Paintings until he was interned in the Isle of Man in 1940 along with most German citizens. He volunteered to be part of a Canadian government initiative to intern in Canada and then settled there in 1942. There, he first worked and then acquired the Dominion Gallery in Montreal which he built to be a world leader in 20th century modern art, representing the likes of Henry Moore, Jean Arp, Aristide Maillol and held the largest stock of Rodin sculpture outside the Musee Rodin.

This is a remarkable honour for Ben Uri and the London Jewish and Museum communities. We embrace the opportunity to communicate Max Stern’s legacy to new and diverse audiences around the world, addressing both the social history of these dark years and the contemporary, complex and challenging issues around the process of restitution.

We are planning an extensive education and public awareness programme and plan to stimulate debate about key issues and sector stumbling blocks unique to each country and play a positive role within the international arena. London plays a significant and leading role in provenance research and restitution issues through its infrastructure developed since the Washington Conference in 1998. We believe that Ben Uri touring this exhibition extensively across Europe, North and South America, Israel, Australia and South Africa over the coming years will enhance London's reputation as a centre of excellence in this endeavour.

We very much hope you share our excitement at being selected to be the custodian of this unique exhibition worldwide over the coming eight years and will help and support us to ensure the important messages are fully and extensively aired with a constructive purpose both here and abroad for the benefit of the forgotten heirs.

Please let us know if you can support or would like to be involved.

Warm regards
David J Glasser
Chairman

For further information please contact:
Suzanne@benuri.org.uk