THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Tuesday, April 7, 2020 |A
A PABLO PICASSOpastel drawing
sold in desperation by a German
Jewish banker before World War II
is returning to the market for at
least $10 million. The banker’s de-
scendants, who recently won resti-
tution of the work from the Na-
tional Gallery of Art in
Washington, have asked New York
dealer Larry Gagosian to sell
“Head of a Woman,” a pensive por-
trait Picasso made in 1903.
Mr. Gagosian said that the heirs
of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bar-
tholdy, the Berlin banker who
bought the drawing around 1912,
approached his gallery last Sep-
tember and asked if the gallery
could help them sell “Head of a
Woman,” should they ever win it
back from the museum.
Mr. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s
several dozen descendants, who
are largely elderly and based in
Europe, said they opted to sell the
drawing because it is difficult for
so many people to share one art-
work.
They will likely use some of the
proceeds to pay legal fees and
fund potential restitutions—a com-
mon arrangement in such long-
term efforts. John Byrne, a lawyer
for the heirs of Mr. Mendelssohn-
Bartholdy, said he couldn’t discuss
financial details of the plan.
The heirs engaged Mr. Gagosian
because his gallery has workedwith Picasso’s estate for years, and
has a track record of major shows
and sales of the artist’s work, Mr.
Gagosian said.
The dealer said he came up with
the estimated price based on the
condition and exceptional aspects
of the drawing, which Picasso
made early in his career. “What
makes this particular work so rare
is that it’s so finished, unlike other
works on paper from this period
that were more like sketches,” Mr.
Gagosian said. “You can tell Pi-
casso has found his voice.”
The heirs’ decision in favor of a
private sale through a gallery rather
than an auction house follows a
trend among owners of other high-
profile works or collections to avoid
the attention and risk of a public
auction at a time when most major
sales have been postponed until af-
ter the coronavirus pandemic.yers, but details weren’t fully
hashed out until March 30.
Last week, Mr. Gagosian said he
worked with the museum to transfer
the painting to his New York gallery
from Washington. He engaged a cou-
rier from Pennsylvania, complying
with the museum’s stipulation that
he send someone who lived far from
New York, which remains under
siege from the pandemic.
In a statement, the National
Gallery, which has owned the Pi-
casso since 2001, confirmed it in-
sisted on working with a courier
from outside New York for health-
safety reasons. The museum said it
chose to return “Head of a
Woman” to “avoid the heavy toll
of litigation” and added that the
move “does not constitute an ac-
knowledgment of the merit or va-
lidity of the asserted claims.”
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: ESTATE OF PABLO PICASSO/ARS, NY/GAGOSIAN; HERMANN J. KNIPPERTZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS; ULLSTEIN BILD/GETTY IMAGES “Head of a Woman,” which mea-
Picasso’s ‘Head of a Woman,’ far left, and ‘Portrait of
Angel Fernández de Soto,’ above, were once owned by
Berlin banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, left.CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: BEN ZAUZMER; CORINNE STOKOE; EMILY ZAUZMERLIFE&ARTS
The swift
turn of events
that brought
“Head of a
Woman” to
New York last
week reveals
that even
amid an art world largely shut
down by the pandemic, interna-
tional restitution efforts churn on.
Spurred by a 2016 law in the U.S.
that has given heirs more years to
lay claim to art that vanished dur-
ing the Holocaust, as well as muse-
ums’ global efforts to be transpar-
ent about the provenance of their
holdings, heirs of Jewish collectors
and institutions say there is no rea-
son to postpone their efforts.
Mr. Byrne said since the Na-
tional Gallery agreed to return the
work in February, he has been
emailing with the museum’s law-Video Streams for the Holidays
For Easter and Passover, families stuck at home improvise to preserve traditions; leg of lamb by the laptop
sures roughly one-foot square, de-
picts an unidentified blue-eyed
woman, whose somber face is
framed in brown curls. Picasso fin-
ished the drawing, along with
roughly 70 paintings, during a mel-
ancholic phase early in his career
known as his Blue Period. Paintings
from this stage, which runs from
1901 to 1904, have sold at auction
for as much as $67.4 million.
Julius Schoeps, a Mendelssohn-
Bartholdy heir and a historian who
is the director of the Moses Men-
delssohn Center for European Jew-
ish Studies at Potsdam University
in Germany, in a statement called
the events “a poignant reminder of
the enormous impact that Nazi
policies had upon the contents of
many private and public art collec-
tions today, as well as the Men-
delssohn family’s tragic history in
Nazi Germany.”
Mr. Gagosian’s involvement with
re-selling “Head of a Woman” is
the latest twist in the saga of a
German banking family pressured
by Nazis to dismantle their art col-
lection within months of Adolf Hit-
ler’s rise to power.
Mr. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy—a
descendant of composer Felix
Mendelssohn—asked a dealer to
help him sell Picasso’s “Head of a
Woman” soon after Hitler took
power and Nazi threats gutted the
banker’s income, Mr. Byrne said.
For now, Mr. Gagosian said he
plans to reach out to Picasso col-
lectors who don’t yet own a Blue
Period work.
The dealer added that he hopes
to find a buyer willing to exhibit
“Head of a Woman” as soon as Mr.
Gagosian reopens his New York
gallery. “I’d like to work something
out so people can see it,” he said.Seder “to-do” list. “Dear Passover
Planning Team” it began: Daughter
Emily was in charge of figuring out
a way to digitally hide the afiko-
men, a piece of matzo that is tradi-
tionally hidden in the house for
children to find. The solution: She
hid an image of the matzo in a
photo from a previous Seder, and
guests will race to find it. The win-
ner will get a prize via Venmo.
Jan’s son, Ben, who lives in Los
Angeles, emailed each guest photos
of the beloved place cards. Daugh-
ter Julie prepared a PowerPoint
presentation, which will include
prayers from the Haggada, a writ-
ten guide to the Passover Seder.
The participants have chosen the
Zoom conferencing platform to use
for the event. “There will be mixed
feelings—both sadness at not being
able to celebrate the holiday to-
gether and joy at being able to
reach across the miles,” says Ms.Zauzmer, who is active in the Re-
form Jewish congregation.
With houses of worship closed,
“there seems to be a return to
home-based religiosity,” says Brie
Loskota, executive director of the
Center for Religion and Civic Cul-
ture at the University of Southern
California in Los Angeles. The home
is where beliefs and values have
long been instilled daily and infor-
mally, she says.
That’s true for Corrine Stokoe,
who lives in Orange County, Calif.,
with her husband and three chil-
dren. On Easter, her family will
have a prayer service in the home,
with the focus on the resurrection
of Jesus. Ms. Stokoe, who is the or-
ganist at her church, will play the
piano. The service will last as long
as the attention span of her chil-
dren—ages 7, 4 and 1.
“We will do a very short sacred
service,” says Ms. Stokoe, whoyoungest of the Figoten children,
made the individual place cards,
writing each name in fancy script
against a background picture of
matzo. Ironically, through marriage
and the passing of generations, no
one at the Seder has the surname
Figoten anymore.
Amy Richlin joined the Seder in
1990 after moving to Los Angeles
from New Jersey. At one Seder, Dr.
Richlin, a classics professor at the
University of California, Los Ange-
les, interviewed some older rela-
tives and wrote the “Ballad of the
Figoten Clan,” telling the story of
how the family migrated from To-
ronto to Detroit and then Los Ange-
les, and sung to the tune of the
theme song of the old TV sitcom
“The Beverly Hillbillies.”
Dr. Richlin says that every so of-
ten she has longed to stay home
and make a leg of lamb for Seder,
setting her own table. “Be careful
what you wish for,” she says. This
year, she will make her lamb—
which she and her husband will eat
in front of their laptop so they join
in the virtual Seder.
To add to the traditional service,
Mr. Zauzmer looked for new read-
ings and contemporary commen-
tary. “Obviously this year I will talk
about this modern plague, what it
means and what we are learning
about togetherness, family and the
things we value,” says Mr. Zauzmer,
whose mother was second cousin to
the Figotens.
Jews close the Seder with “Next
year in Jerusalem,” a line that is
meant to look forward with hope.
Next year, the family members say,
they hope they can be together in
person. “I expect many of us will be
choked up,” says Ms. Zauzmer.writes a fashion blog. Her three
girls will wear new Easter outfits,
and they will take a family picture,
an annual tradition that follows one
from her own youth. “My mom al-
ways dressed us in special outfits
for Easter. I’ve done the same with
my kids,” says Ms. Stokoe.
She will continue with other tra-
ditions, filling Easter baskets with
books, toys and candy and making
her mother’s cherry Jell-O, even
though her children don’t like it.
In the Figoten family Seder, the
stewed fruit compote was the dubi-
ous but oft-repeated dish. The Se-
ders started in the early 1950s and
eventually moved to a banquet hall,
which could accommodate the
group of 30 to 40 people.
Food was always secondary. “We
get together only once a year en
masse,” says Bruce Rawitz, 64. “It’s
a social time. Not just a religious
time.” His late mother, Dorothy, theT
he Figoten family has
been gathering for
Passover Seder meals
for almost 70 years in
Los Angeles—some
members flying across
the country to eat, pray, visit and
sing songs, including their original
“Ballad of the Figoten Clan.” Every-
one had their own place cards,
many made by a family member
who passed away.
This year, the coronavirus has
made their usual celebration impos-
sible. It’s a reality faced by many
families this month, when far-flung
relatives normally unite for Pass-
over, Easter or Ramadan holidays.
Now families, who for generations
have come together to perform tra-
ditions they learned as children, are
grasping for ways to connect virtu-
ally, re-creating long-held rituals.
Passover, a special ritualized din-
ner with family and friends that in-
volves the retelling of the Exodus
story and the liberation of Jews
from slavery, presents particular
challenges. It doesn’t involve syna-
gogues, so there’s no easy way to
record and broadcast services. Plus,
Passover involves preparing many
foods that are often symbolic and
crucial to the ceremony.
For the Figotens, that has forced
a rethinking of family traditions
they have performed for seven de-
cades. In mid-March, Bob Zauzmer,
who lives in Philadelphia but has
returned with his family to Califor-
nia to lead the Figoten Seder for 40
years, emailed all attendees, letting
them know about plans for a virtual
ceremony.
His wife, Jan, created a virtualBYCLAREANSBERRYBYKELLYCROWA Picasso Drawing
Skips the Auction Block
Some Figoten Seder place cards, top; above, the family Seder in 2017; at right,
Corrine Stokoe and her family, photographed last Easter at church.