These Long-Lost 17th-Century Paintings Were Looted by the Nazis. They Just Surfaced at an Ohio Auction House

The still lifes were part of the Schloss collection, which was seized in 1943. Auction house officials halted the sale when they learned of the artworks’ suspected provenance

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

September 15, 2025

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The auction of two 17th-century oil paintings by Dutch artist Ambrosius Bosschaert was stopped in its tracks when experts from the Monuments Men and Women Foundation determined the artworks had been stolen by Nazis during World War II.

The foundation continues the mission of the group of art experts who famously recovered some 60,000 pieces of art looted by Nazis during the war. According to a statement, citizens contacted the foundation’s “art leads” tip line about the Bosschaert paintings, which had been listed for sale by Apple Tree Auction Center in Newark, Ohio.

Unbeknownst to Apple Tree, the two small artworks—floral bouquets painted on copper—belonged to the collection of Adolphe Schloss, a German Jewish collector, per the statement. Each painting bears an inventory number that the Germans added after seizing the collection in 1943: They’re marked “S 16” and “S 17”; the S stands for Schloss.

Robert M. Edsel, the foundation’s chairman, traveled to Newark to meet with the auction house about returning the paintings to the Schloss family. By this time, online bids for the paintings had reached $3,250 and $225, according to the Columbus Dispatch’s Bob Vitale, who first reported the discovery. Upon learning of the works’ likely provenance, Apple Tree withdrew the paintings from sale.

“This case is another example of how people of goodwill can work together to right the wrongs of World War II, by returning looted works of art to their rightful owners,” Edsel says in the statement. “Within 48 hours of receiving this lead, the foundation documented the provenance of the works that supports the Schloss ownership, inspected the two paintings in person, attained the cooperation of the auction house to remove the pictures from their sale and reached out to the attorney for the Schloss heirs.”

Bosschaert’s artworks have sold for millions of dollars at auctions. If authenticated, the recently identified pieces could be worth up to $1 million each, according to the Dispatch.

“I might be wrong,” Edsel tells the Dispatch. “But there’s point-zero, zero, zero, zero chance [of that].”

Schloss was born in Bavaria in 1842, and he spent most of his life in Paris. He collected old master paintings, especially Flemish and Dutch works. By the time he died in 1910, he owned at least 334 pieces. Nearly three decades later, in 1939, his children transferred his famed collection to bank vaults far from Paris. Despite these precautions, the Nazis found and seized the art in 1943, according to the Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project. Both of the floral paintings are registered with photographs in the organization’s digital record of the Schloss collection.

The Nazis brought the paintings to Munich, where they were stored in Adolf Hitler’s headquarters, per the statement. That was the last time the artworks were seen.

As Edsel tells the Columbus Dispatch, it’s possible an American soldier illegally brought the Bosschaert paintings home with him as souvenirs. The paintings arrived at Apple Tree from abandoned safe-deposit boxes in Texas.

“The Monuments Men and Women Foundation receives missing art leads every day,” says foundation president Anna Bottinelli in the statement. “It’s no surprise that these two paintings surfaced at a small auction house in the Midwest, but it could have happened anywhere. Hundreds of thousands of cultural objects looted during World War II are still missing. Some are in the United States, tucked away in attics, hanging on walls and stuffed in unopened boxes, passed down through generations.”

Sonja Anderson | Read More

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in Chicago.