France hands back Nazi looted art by Flemish master Joachim Patinir to Jewish family

France returned three paintings by the Flemish master Joachim Patinir Monday to the descendants of a Jewish family who were forced to sell them as they fled the Nazis. The Bromberg family fled to Paris from Germany in late 1938 and were forced to sell the 16th-century “Triptych of the Crucifixion” depicting Christ on the cross the following year, along with several other paintings so they could get to the United States via Switzerland. The paintings were formally handed over to the descendants of Herta and Henry Bromberg at the Louvre Museum by French Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen. It is the second time in two years that the French state has returned despoiled art to the family. In 2016 it handed over another 16th-century painting, “Portrait of a Man”, by one of the followers of Antwerp artist Joos van Cleve.