Looted drawing returned

A small 17th century drawing titled “The Liberation of St. Peter From Prison,” once believed to be a Rembrandt, has been returned to its rightful owners in Israel, thanks to an anonymous American collector who sought the truth about its origins after beginning to suspect that it may have been looted during the Holocaust.

“The gesture was really exceptional,” said Sharon Flescher, executive director of the International Foundation for Art Research, which helped restore the 5 1/2 -by-5-inch piece to the survivors of Arthur Feldmann, a Czechoslovakian collector who perished along with his wife after the Germans invaded in 1939.

Flescher’s organization and the London-based Commission for Looted Art in Europe announced Tuesday that the drawing, which the American owner had bought 30 years ago without knowing it was stolen, has been restored to Uri Peled, an Israeli grandson of the Feldmanns.

The owner initiated the process two years ago after reading a press report that Feldmann’s heirs were trying to recover a looted collection of 700 drawings, including “The Liberation of St. Peter From Prison.”

“It’s important to say the Americans came forward on their own; no one knew they had this work,” Flescher said.