Le Mur Rose, Henri Matisse
‘‘It’s a remarkable and in some ways slightly creepy story,’’ said Stuart Glyn, chairman of the British charity Magen David Adom UK. The painting belonged to Harry Fuld, a German Jew who made his fortune founding the H. Fuld & Co. Telefon und Telegraphenwerke AG in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1899, the charity says.
Finally, justice for Henri Matisse’s “Le Mur Rose.”
The oil painting, which was stolen from a wealthy German Jewish family sometime after 1937 and kept by a Nazi officer responsible for delivering poison gas to Auschwitz, is to be given Thursday to a British charity that supports medical rescue in Israel.
The story of how “Le Mur Rose,” or “The Pink Wall,” made its way through the war to France is as surprising as the colorful painting itself, and steeped with death, mystery and injustice. Stolen from Jews, proceeds from the expected sale of the painting will go toward the Magen David Adom network of ambulances, paramedics and emergency treatment centers in Israel.
