Nineteen-Year Dispute Over a Franz Marc Painting’s Ownership

A long-running dispute centers on Franz Marc’s "Horse in Landscape," which Hugo Simon owned before fleeing Berlin weeks after the Nazis seized power in 1933. Simon had the work sent to his son-in-law in the south of France, and it was still listed under his name in 1938; what happened to it after that is unknown, and Simon’s heirs have pursued a restitution claim against the Folkwang Museum in Essen for nearly two decades.

The Folkwang bought the painting in 1953 from dealer Werner Rusche and a partner, who said he had acquired it from a private collector in the south of France “with great difficulty and trouble” but did not identify the seller or explain how the collector obtained it.

Museum-commissioned research and internal inquiries have left a provenance gap between 1937/1938 and 1953 unresolved; the city that co-owns the collection says it would support “a fair and just solution” if new evidence shows the work was lost to Nazi persecution.

Germany, Essen

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