Walter Westfeld

[1] After the Reich Chamber of Culture banned outlawed Jewish art dealers, Westfeld was forced to liquidate his gallery.

Assisting him were his servant Werner Abel, Düsseldorf art dealer and freight forwarder Fritz Beyer and August Kleucker.

"[1] The Nazis, however, had enacted confiscatory taxes, fees and rules to rob fleeing Jews of all their assets, and on 15 November 1938 Westfeld was arrested for violating the Third Reich's foreign exchange regulations.

The forced auction of Westfeld's collection included artworks by Peter Paul Rubens, Egbert van der Poel, Antonio Molinari, Arnold Böcklin, Alselm Feuerbach, Camille Pissarro, Jean-François Millet, Carl Spitzweg, Andreas Achenbach, Franz von Defregger, Franz von Lenbach, Adolf Scheyer and Rombout van Troyen.

[1] The Düsseldorf Regional Court sentenced Westfeld on 2 July 1940, under Director Hans Opderbecke and his assessors, Theodor Hoberg and Theo Groove, to three years and six months in prison and a fine of 300,000 Reichsmarks.

On 23 September 1942, Walter Westfeld wrote his will on a small piece of cloth in his cell and appointed Emilie Scheulen as sole heir.

"[3] On 1 October 1942 Walter Westfeld was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp on the orders of Police Officer Wilhelm Kurt Friedrich.

[4] At the request of the Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office, the foreign currency ruling against Walter Westfeld of 2 July 1940 was overturned on 13 May 1952.

[13] Germany refused to restitute the looted artworks arguing that they were barred by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,[14] an argument which was accepted by the judge.