OU has agreed to fully transfer the rights of a Nazi-stolen painting hanging in the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art to the family that sought to re-obtain its ownership.
OU President David Boren said in a statement May 14, 2015, that the full history of "La Bergère rentrant des moutons" was unknown and defended Aaron and Clara Weitzenhoffer's purchase of the painting in 1956. Now, according to Pierre Ciric, the Meyer family's attorney, the university has acknowledged its previous ownership of the painting.
Ciric said the painting will be transported to a museum institution in France sometime this summer, where it will be displayed publicly for five years. After that five-year period, the painting will rotate between a museum in France and Fred Jones, he said.
He also said no money was exchanged in the settlement.
Boren said in a statement that OU is pleased that a "constructive agreement" has been reached.
“The University is pleased that a constructive agreement has been reached," he said in the statement. "The rotating display of the work meets the University’s long-stated goal to ensure the painting remains available to Oklahomans and that it continues to be available for educational purposes. We are glad that the agreement recognizes the good faith and generosity of the Weitzenhoffer family, which has been one of the most generous donors in the University's history. Likewise, we are pleased to have found a way to reach an arrangement agreeable to the Meyer family.”
Nazi forces stole the painting in 1941 from the family of Leone Meyer, who sued the university to re-obtain ownership of it. After a period in which the painting exchanged hands multiple times, Clara and Aaron Weitzenhoffer, the parents of OU Regent Max Weitzenhoffer, purchased it from an art gallery in New York. Clara Weitzenhoffer's estate then bequeathed the painting to the art museum at OU in 2000.
State representative Paul Wesselhöft (R-Moore), former state representative Mike Reynolds and OU student Eric Sundby, the president of the Holocaust Remembrance and Restitution Society at OU, will hold a news conference at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Oklahoma State Capitol to discuss the settlement, according to a press release.
This article was updated at 2:26 p.m. to include a statement from OU President David Boren.
