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Max Liebermann's 'Two Riders on the Beach.' Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Nazi-looted painting from Gurlitt art trove to be sold at auction

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf

Max Liebermann's 'Two Riders on the Beach.' Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Max Liebermann’s ‘Two Riders on the Beach.’ Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
 
LONDON (AP) – A painting that was seized by the Nazis and only recently returned to the Jewish owner’s heirs is going on auction.

Max Liebermann’s Two Riders on a Beach was discovered in 2012 in the long-hidden art trove hoarded by German collector Cornelius Gurlitt. Gurlitt died last year and the painting was one of the first from his trove to be released back to the heirs of their rightful owners.

David Toren, the great-nephew of the painting’s original owner, said he and other heirs have decided to sell the painting so it can “pass into a new phase of its story.”

Sotheby’s estimated Friday that the Liebermann painting could sell for up to $850,000 when it goes on auction in London on June 24.

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AP-WF-05-22-15 1428GMT