German court rejects collector’s complaint against listing in Nazi-era lost art database

BERLIN (AP) — A German federal court has rejected a collector’s complaint against the inclusion of a painting he bought at auction in a database used to document works which may have been expropriated as a result of Nazi persecution. The plaintiff, who acquired the painting “Calabrian Coast” by German artist Andreas Achenbach at an auction in London in 1999, argued that the entry in the Lost Art Database and the triggering in Canada of an Interpol search for the work impaired his ownership of it. The Federal Court of Justice ruled against that claim on Friday. The painting was once owned by a Jewish art dealer who emigrated from Nazi Germany