Stolen Or Not? RISD Responds To Art Theft Claims

The Rhode Island School of Design denied claims that a Picasso painting it owns was stolen by Nazis from a Jewish Art Collector. The Cubist painting, Femme assise au livre (Seated Woman with a Book), has been in the RISD Museum’s collection since 1951.

The claim to RISD questioned the path of ownership of the painting and argued that it was looted from Alphonse Kann’s collection in 1940 during the Nazi occupation of France. The school said there’s extensive research that confirms claims that the painting was once owned by Kann, but shows it was legitimately sold to an art gallery.