12 FINAL^ Sunday 1 September 2019 The Sunday Telegraph
V&A aims to return treasures looted by Nazis
By Jessica Carpani
THE Victoria and Albert Museum is at-
tempting to reunite families with 80
pieces of Nazi looted art as it becomes
the first museum in the UK to hire a
provenance expert.
Jacques Schuhmacher, 35, from
Frankfurt, is dedicated to provenance
research and has been uncovering the
story of Nazi looting through the mu-
seum’s Gilbert Collection. Founded by
Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert, Jewish
immigrants from eastern Europe, it in-
cludes 1,000 items of gold and silver;
gold boxes, pietre dure, portrait minia-
tures and micro mosaics.
Mr Schuhmacher has so far identi-
fied 80 items with a troubling past, in-
cluding objects sold by a German
auction house in the Thirties, objects
known to have been in Nazi Germany
or a country occupied by Nazis, items
that were once in a Jewish collection
and items with limited information.
Mr Schuhmacher said his work is
part of the museum “intensifying ef-
forts in provenance search” with Nazi-
looted art being a “big priority”. Nowhe hopes the 80 objects can be reunited
with families.
“I have been in touch with some
families,” he said. “In many cases, it’s
very difficult where people were mur-
dered and sometimes did not leave be-
hind family members. In other cases,
the family were scattered all over the
world as they managed to escape Nazi-
occupied Europe, but it’s very difficult
to track them down.”
One of the objects is a gold snuffbox
owned by Eugen Gutmann, founder of
the Dresdner Bank, who died in 1925,
with the bulk of his collection inher-
ited by his son, Friedrich.
It was acquired by the Gilbert Col-
lection in 1983 with no informationabout its provenance. “In 1942, Nazi art
dealers descended on the Gutmanns’
home and compelled Friedrich to send
the collection to Munich. The snuffbox
is not recorded on that inventory,” said
Mr Schuhmacher.
“In 1943, Friedrich and his wife Lou-
ise were told they could emigrate to It-
aly. Instead, their train was diverted tothe Theresienstadt Ghetto [in Bohe-
mia], and they were murdered.”
Mr Schuhmacher studied archives in
the Netherlands, where Friedrich
lived, Germany and the US. While the
case remains unsolved, he was able to
meet a descendant of the family, Simon
Gutmann, who has written books on
Nazi looting.
Mr Schuhmacher said the process
can be “frustrating”: “Sometimes, you
send emails to members of families and
never receive a reply. You can’t be sure
if you’ve contacted the right person.”
But he hopes a new display of eight
objects from the Gilbert Collection
with “problematic provenance” that
will go on show at the V&A in Decem-ber, will encourage answers. “If any-
one has further information, we
welcome that, and I hope that it will
lead to further research,” he said.
Once families are found, they can
make a claim through the Spoliation Ad-
visory Panel who issue recommenda-
tions on objects. Mr Schuhmacher said
the V&A will continue to tackle the col-
lection’s history “head on” and feature
provenance “where appropriate” on de-
scription labels and the V&A website.Troubling Objects: Uncovering the Story
of Nazi Looting , a free display, curated
by Jacques Schuhmacher and Alice
Minter, Curator of the Gilbert Collec-
tion, will open at the V&A on Dec 5.Video gamers
go back to the
boards in 3D
printing boom
By Mike Wright
VIDEO game players are turning away
from their screens to play board games
- using new, lifelike pieces made on 3D
printers.
The trend is fuelling a boom in adult
board games as enthusiasts and compa-
nies adapt popular video games into
new tabletop pastimes.
More and more gamers say they are
shunning the increasingly toxic world
of online gaming in favour of the home-
spun fun of an evening in with friends.
Alex Heath, a 32-year-old freelance
concept artist, said he “wouldn’t have
thought about playing a board game”
five years ago.
But after becoming an avid player
himself, he is designing his own board
game, The Floor is Lava, based on the
video game World of Warcraft.
He said: “With the ease of printing
and 3D modelling, being able to pro-
duce a board game and lots of people
being familiar with the game mechan-
ics, more board games are being made
that would have been previously diffi-
cult and expensive to make.”
The trend has been developing for a
number of years. In 2016, two British
designers set a target to raise £50,
on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter to
create a tabletop board version of the
popular game Dark Souls. The pair had
more than £3.7 million pledged.
Larger game makers are also looking
to cash in on the trend, with US giant
Hasbro releasing a version of Monop-
oly based on the video game Fortnite.
The board games market is expected
to grow in the UK by 10 per cent by
2022, mainly fuelled by adult demand,
according to analysts GlobalData.
The demand for video game-based
board games is also being driven by a
backlash against the toxicity of the on-
line gaming world.
Paul Canavan, from Edinburgh, who
was art director on AAA titles – the
blockbusters of the game world – such
as Destiny 2, said: “The video games
community is extremely hostile and
board games and tabletop games have
quite a pleasant, nice community.
“There is something inherently
pleasant about going around to your
mate’s house and playing something
with real people with a few beers.”
Samaritans betting tie-up is
‘getting in bed with the devil’
By Matt Drake
THE Samaritans suicide prevention
charity has been accused of being “in
bed with the devil” over a tie-up with
bookmakers Paddy Power Betfair.
Staff at the gambling giant chose Sa-
maritans as their Charity of the Year,
but relatives of gambling addicts who
have taken their own lives said the
charity was risking its reputation.
John Myers, who lost his son Ryan,
27, to suicide after he became addicted
to gambling, said he is “extremely dis-
appointed in Samaritans”.
He added: “They’re a charitable or-
ganisation so they need to get money
from other people, wherever they can.
But to throw yourself in with the devil I
don’t think is right.”
Carolyn Harris, chairman of the all-
party parliamentary group on gam-
bling-related harm, said: “It legitimises
this business. I’ve met so many people
who’ve lost loved ones, livelihoods and
homes through addiction to gambling.
Samaritans should get back to basics
and keep doing what’s it’s been re-
spected for doing for years.”
Both organisations said the partner-
ship will help Samaritans’ fundraising
efforts and also help Paddy Power Bet-
fair look after vulnerable customers.
Samaritans said: “We will be work-
ing with Paddy Power Betfair ... to in-
form their activity on reducing
gambling harm.”
Paddy Power Betfair said it is “keen
to learn from the fantastic work the Sa-
maritans already do, in order to con-
tinually improve our responsible
gambling tools and interactions”.The Goldfinch replica takes
film to the art of the matter
By Dalya AlbergeART experts at a leading museum have
recreated one of its most famous paint-
ings for the film version of a Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel.
The Mauritshuis in The Hague has
seen a surge in visitors to Carel Fabri-
tius’s The Goldfinch after the release of
Donna Tartt’s novel of the same name.
And the museum played a key role in
the film, starring Nicole Kidman, which
it expects to stimulate even more inter-
est in the 17th-century masterpiece
when it is premiered in September.
The film-makers describe the replica
of the painting its experts created as
“the perfect stand-in” for their movie.
A 3D scanner was used to scan the
painting’s impasto surface and rebuild
it in layers. Having initially feared itwould look like a poor reproduction,
museum staff were overwhelmed by
how much it looked like the real thing.
Dr Emilie Gordenker, the museum
director, said that, when placed side by
side, the original and the replica are in-
deed “very, very close”.
She added: “This is one of those
wonderful moments when science,
technology, art historical knowledge...
and, in this case, the novel all come to-
gether.”Fears lawyers’ free assistant
service will create stress
By Phoebe SouthworthA LAW firm has given its solicitors a
concierge service to run their errands,
prompting criticism that they are try-
ing to chain staff to their desks.
Kirkland and Ellis, based in the City
of London, is offering its 300 lawyers
free personal assistants, available
around the clock, seven days a week.
Some of the unusual requests have
included building a bike as a birthday
gift for an employee’s daughter, re-
trieving a coat left in a barber’s shop
and picking up a Christmas tree.
But the system, ostensibly designed
to make lawyers’ lives easier, has been
criticised by groups who claim that it
generates more stress.
The Association of Women Solici-
tors told The Sunday Telegraph: “Theimplication is that Kirkland & Ellis
lawyers are so busy fee-earning that
they do not have time to even book a
holiday, let alone perhaps go on one.
Why is that?
“This is indicative of a much wider
cultural problem: that the measure of a
person’s success is the amount of time
they spend in the office chair and there-
fore the number of hours they bill.”
Neil Shah, chief de-stressing officer
at The Stress Management Society,
said: “This is a concern. Rather than
giving people a perk, it’s just a veiled
attempt to get them to work harder.”
Kirkland and Ellis did not provide a
comment when contacted by The Sun-
day Telegraph. Google, Apple and Face-
book have been criticised for offering
female workers an egg-freezing service
so they can delay having children.Museum’s new provenance
expert addresses difficult
issue of objects’ previous
ownership in new display
Season’s greeting The sun rises over the English Channel near Selsey, East Sussex, yesterday on the last day of meteorological
summer. The Met Office says autumn will begin with a mix of sunshine and showers, heaviest in the north. Weather: Page 29COASTAL JJ/BAV MEDIANews
A snuffbox, once
owned by Friedrich
Gutmann who was
murdered by the
Nazis in the Forties,
will be on displayThe Goldfinch, which
was painted by Carel
Fabritius, a pupil of
Rembrandt,
measures just 13in by
9inEpstein victims
call on Yard to
assist US with
investigation
By Harriet Alexander in New YorkBRITISH police should assist investi-
gators in New York with their inquiry
into Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking
network, a source close to one of his
victims has said.
New York authorities have repeat-
edly said that they will continue inves-
tigating whether the disgraced
financier had co-conspirators, and will
not let the case die with him.
Epstein, 66, died on Aug 10 from
what a coroner ruled was suicide, while
awaiting trial in a Manhattan jail.
Prosecutors are now turning their
attention to any alleged co-conspira-
tors – among them Ghislaine Maxwell,
the British heiress, and Sarah Kellen,
another Epstein employee.
Two sources close to the investiga-
tion told The New York Times on Friday
they were looking into the activities of
Haley Robson, now 33, who told police
in a 2009 deposition how she was paid
to bring young girls to Epstein in Flor-
ida. Asked if the British police should
assist the New York prosecutors, the
source replied: “They should.”
New York police refused to com-
ment on their ongoing investigation.
Epstein’s globe-trotting extended to
the UK, where in June 2000 he was
among 600 guests at Windsor Castle to
celebrate four royal birthdays, with
“the dance of the decades”.
In December 2000, he joined the
Duke of York and Ms Maxwell at the
Queen’s Sandringham estate, and in
2001 was in London for a night out
with the Duke, Ms Maxwell and Vir-
ginia Roberts, now Giuffre.
Mrs Giuffre claims she was forced to
have sex with the Duke. He has vehe-
mently denied her claims.
Last night, the socialite Lady Victo-
ria Hervey, a friend of the Duke, re-
vealed she visited one of Epstein’s
Manhattan properties two decades ago
after an invitation from Ms Maxwell.
She told the Sunday Mirror that
something “did not feel right”, but
added: “Andrew has something very
naive about him. I honestly don’t think
Andrew knew what was going on.”
All the allegations against the Duke
were struck from the court record in
2015 after being described as “immate-
rial and impertinent” by a judge.RELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws