Australian gallery returns Nazi-looted artwork to Jewish family

In a major reversal, the National Gallery of Victoria has returned a Nazi-looted painting to a German Jewish family which has been campaigning for 20 years to reclaim the artwork from the Gallery.

After two decades of rejecting the claim, the NGV has now returned Lady with a Fan, by the 17th century Dutch master Gerard ter Borch, to the descendants of Henry and Bertha Bromberg. The decision came after the gallery received several new pieces of evidence that the painting rightfully belonged to the family.

“After thoroughly assessing the painting's background and origins, the NGV determined that the work had been owned by Dr Henry Bromberg and was subject to a forced sale in the late 1930s, and that the heirs of Dr Bromberg were the rightful owners of the painting,” the Gallery told The Jewish Independent.

“The painting was subsequently deaccessioned from the NGV Collection in 2025 and returned to the Bromberg family.”

The Gallery did not say when it returned the painting, and said it could not give any further details about the new evidence, who provided it, or when it was received.

“The documentation confirms that it’s clearly theirs and it’s clearly stolen,” a person familiar with the claim told TJI. The [new evidence] relates to documentation between when the gallery got the painting and when the family could prove it was their painting,”