Painting looted by the Nazis in 1933 is finally returned to Jewish family after it wound up in a small New York museum - and it's now expected to sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars

A painting seized by the Nazis from the family of a wealthy Jewish media mogul in 1933 has been returned to the family's heirs after a student researcher first spotted it on the Facebook page of a small Upstate New York museum in 2017. 

The work, 'Winter' by American artist Gari Melchers, was part of the collection at the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie until September 2019, according to federal court documents.

A federal prosecutor officially repatriated the painting to the Mosse family Thursday in a ceremony at the FBI office in Albany.  

'The Mosse family lost nearly everything because they were Jews. But they did not lose hope,' acting U.S Attorney for the Northern District of New York Antoinette Bacon. 'While this certainly does not take away the pain the that the Mosses endured, I hope it provides the family with some measure of justice.' 

Acting U.S Attorney for the Northern District of New York Antoinette Bacon officially repatriated the painting to the Mosse family Thursday in a ceremony at the Albany FBI office

'Winter' by American artist Gari Melchers is a painting that was bought in 1900 by the German Jewish media mogul Rudolf Mosse

German publisher and philanthropist Rudolf Mosse first acquired the painting from the Great Berlin Art Exhibition in 1900.

'Winter' was one of more than 1,000 artifacts and pieces of art that the Nazis seized from the Mosses after family members fled Germany in 1933. 

'It was one of the first large expropriations undertaken by the Nazis, a template for what became, unfortunately, a well-oiled machine,' said Roger Strauch, president of the Mosse Foundation and the step-great-grandson of Rudolf Mosse. He participated in the ceremony by video link. 

The recovery is part of an international effort to find artwork that was stolen after the Nazis' ascension to power.

The painting was found to be in the collection of the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, N.Y., in 2017

The Nazis had persecuted the Mosse family because they were Jewish and because of their affiliations with Berliner Tageblatt, a newspaper critical of the party, according to court documents.

Rudolf Mosse headed a vast media empire that included 130 newspapers and journals.

His family also was involved in charitable endeavors throughout Germany, including a home for the children of impoverished families and a hospital.

The Mosse family was also very active in the Reform Jewish community. 

Mosse was also very active in the art community in Germany, according to The Art Newspaper. 

He owned a collection that he stored in his palatial three-story home on Berlin's Leipziger Platz, which the artistic community dubbed the 'Mosseum' or 'Mosse-Palais.' 

After Mosse died in 1920, he left his estate to his daughter, Felicia Lachmann-Mosse.

Hans Lachmann-Mosse, his son-in-law, managed Mosse's publishing house.

But when the Nazis rose to power in 1933, they targeted the family, whose flagship newspaper, Berliner Tageblatt, was critical of them.

Mosse ran a media empire that included 130 newspapers and journals in Germany in the late 1800s until his death in 1920. His family was persecuted by the Nazis, who would shut down its flagship newspaper, the Berliner Tageblatt, a liberal publication that was viewed as part of the hated 'Jewish-run media'

Felicia and Hans Lachmann-Mosse fled Germany and relocated to Switzerland that same year. Eventually, they emigrated to the United States.

The entire Mosse art collection was seized and handed to the Nazi dealer Karl Haberstock as a trustee. 

Most of the collection was sold at auction in Berlin in 1934. 

The family publication was shut down by the Nazi authorities in January 1939. 

Bartlett Arkell, the first president of the Beech-Nut Packing Company, brought the painting from a New York City gallery in 1934 for his personal collection and it later became part of the collection at the museum 50 miles northwest of Albany that bears his name.

The road to this restitution started after the museum noted its seasonal closing in January 2017 with a friendly Facebook post urging readers to 'Enjoy Winter!' It was illustrated with a picture of 'Winter.' 

The post was noticed by a student working with Dr. Meike Hoffmann of the Free University of Berlin. Hoffmann heads the Mosse Art Research Initiative, a university-based collaboration involving Mosse heirs and German public cultural institutions. 

Hoffmann said in an email that provenance researchers at MARI were able to link the painting to the Mosse family with the help of Suzan D. Friedlander, the museum's executive director and chief curator.

Friedlander wrote in a statement last year that the museum 'was of course very upset to learn the history of the painting's seizure from the Mosse family by the Nazis in 1933.'

Federal authorities were contacted as MARI manager J. Eric Bartko was working to get the painting returned from the museum. 

Strauch told The Art Newspaper last year that the Mosse family's initial approach to the museum 'was not successful in engaging the museum regarding our claim.'

Eventually, Strauch said that the intervention by the FBI and the district attorney was 'impressive and effective.' 

Mosse's step-great-grandson, Roger Strauch, says the museum was not receptive to the family's initial claim to the artwork. Strauch praised intervention by the FBI

The museum waived all rights to the painting, which is also known as 'Skaters' or 'Snow.'

FBI agents recovered the painting in September 2019. The formal handover to the family was delayed by the pandemic. 

Friedlander said at the ceremony that the museum takes it responsibility to make things right seriously. 

Strauch said the painting is expected to be auctioned through Sotheby's, where it could attract bids in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most recovered artworks have been sold back to the previous holders or sold at auction, he said.  

The Mosse Art Restitution Project was started in 2011 to locate and restitute the stolen artworks on behalf of the Mosse heirs. 

It has completed three dozen restitutions covering more than 50 items from public and private museums as well as private individuals in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Israel and the United States. 

They include paintings by Karl Blechen, Friedrich von Kallmorgen, Wilhelm Leibl, Adolf von Menzel and Anton von Werner and sculptures by August Gaul and Reinhold Begas.