Czech Museum to Return Original Beethoven Score to Family Who Fled Holocaust #announcements #austria-czech #holocaust
A Ludwig van Beethoven's music manuscript, is seen in the Moravian Museum's collection in Brno on
Nov. 30 2022, in Brno, Slovakia (Šálek Václav/CTK via AP)
A musical manuscript handwritten by Ludwig van Beethoven is getting returned to the heirs of the richest family in pre-World War II Czechoslovakia, whose m
embers had to flee the country to escape the Holocaust.
The Moravian Museum in the Czech city of Brno has had the original manuscript for the fourth movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet n B-flat Major, Op. 130 in its collection for more than 80 years. The museum put the score on display for the first time this week in anticipation of handing it over to its rightful owners.
The museum said a restitution law on property stolen by German Nazis made the return possible. Details about how the family, whose wealth came mainly from the mining industry and banking in Central Europe, after World War I acquired the piece from one of the German composer’s late quartets is unknown.
To read more see:
Jan Meisels Allen
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee
