Germany returns Nazi-looted work to French Jewish collector's heirs

Germany on Tuesday returned a painting looted by the Nazis to the heirs of French Jewish politician and resistance leader Georges Mandel. The portrait of a seated woman by 19th-century French painter Thomas Couture had been on display in a spectacular collection hoarded by Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of a Nazi-era art dealer. German Culture Minister Monika Gruetters presented the work to relatives of Mandel — who was executed by French fascists near Paris in 1944 — in a ceremony at the Martin Gropius Bau museum in Berlin. Experts determined two years ago that the painting had been looted from Mandel, relying on a small hole in the canvas as evidence of its provenance. Mandel’s lover had cited the hole above the seated woman’s torso when she reported the painting stolen after the war. Gruetters was joined at the c