German claims two Picassos

The Museum of Modern Art and the foundation that operates the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York filed a complaint against a German professor last week in federal court, after he claimed that he was the rightful owner of two of the most important Picasso paintings in their collections.

Julius Schoeps, a professor at the University of Potsdam, had asserted in letters to the museum that “Boy Leading a Horse” and “Le Moulin de la Galette” were sold under duress as the Nazis rose to power in the 1930s. The paintings had been part of the collection of Paul Robert Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, a prominent German Jewish banker who died in 1935. Schoeps, whose grandmother was a sister of Von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, claims that he is the rightful owner and demands that they be returned, according to court papers. The museums asked a judge to declare that they are the proper owners.