Italy Returns Andrea della Robbia Statue to German Jewish Family

Italy has officially returned a 15th-century terracotta statue of Mary Magdalene, attributed to Andrea della Robbia, to the heirs of a German Jewish family. The sculpture was looted by the Nazis during World War II and mistakenly handed over to the Italian government in 1954. The restitution ceremony took place in Berlin, attended by Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, German Culture Minister Monika Grütters, and Carabinieri commander Roberto Riccardi. The work originally belonged to the Kunsthaus Drey gallery in Munich, owned by the Jewish families of Siegfried Drey and Ludwig Stern, who were forced to sell their collection under Nazi racial laws. The statue was later found by American forces among the collections of Hermann Göring. The return was facilitated by Italy's MiBACT committee, the Carabinieri Cultural Heritage Protection Unit, the Uffizi Galleries, and the Italian State Attorney's Office. Both ministers signed a joint declaration reaffirming commitment to the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art. Germany recently opened an Help Desk at the German Lost Art Foundation to assist victims of Nazi looting.