Written by Sasha Pavey Sunday, 20 February 2011 19:49

Wallraf Richartz Museum in Cologne Finally Displays A Monet Donated More Than 20 Years Ago

Cologne, Germany - A Cologne museum has unveiled an original Claude Monet painting 20 years after it was acquired in an unusual way. All signs point to it being authentic, says the gallery that now owns it. Goetz Czymmek is a patient man. For over two decades, he has nursed a secret that any art lover would struggle to keep. In 1991, as curator of the Wallraf Richartz Museum in Cologne, Czymmek received an anonymous phone call from an elderly woman, informing him that an original and well-preserved Monet awaited him in a cardboard box in her cellar and was his to have but only under strict conditions. She was to remain anonymous, and the painting could only be displayed upon her death.

As the anonymous donor has since passed away, Goetz Cymmek is now at liberty to tell the strange story of how he came to possess the valuable gift. "At first, I didn't take the woman too seriously; I thought she probably just wanted me to verify the painting as an original, which is not unusual," said Czymmek. He was invited to her home to view the work, which he found in a plain cardboard box in the middle of her living room.

"This painting immediately had me under its spell," said the curator. "The woman insisted that I take the painting with me immediately, because she wanted it in the museum. And so, I drove back to Cologne with a Monet in a cardboard box in the backseat of my car."

There was just one catch: The woman, who remained anonymous, didn't want the painting exhibited during her lifetime, Deutsche Welle reports. She gave the work to the museum 20 years ago, with instructions to store it in the basement until her death. And so, between 1991 and 2010, she sent Czymmek a letter at least once a year, with a brief message: "I'm still alive!" She recently passed away, which means that Czymmek is now free to reveal the story and exhibit the painting.

For the next 20 years, the painting was stored in the basement of the Cologne museum.  Czymmek never saw the elderly woman again, although she contacted him at least once a year, often with the simple message: "I am still alive!" While many works of art are bequeathed to the museum, Czymmek said that receiving a gift as rare and valuable as this is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. "We are often given paintings and we are happy about many acquisitions, but sometimes these paintings are left to us because they are not sellable, and they are often in poor condition," explained the curator.

"Spring mood in Vetheuil" was the exception. It has been identified as an original dating to 1880 and depicting a scene from the town where Monet lived from 1879 to 1881. The work dates to a pivotal moment in Claude Monet's life and work. It was here that his wife Camille died in 1879, and where he later met his second wife, Alice. In spring 1880, he held his first solo exhibition after refusing to take part in the 5th Impressionist Exhibition, thus signaling the year he chose to emancipate himself from his impressionist contemporaries. 1880 was a crucial year for Monet, as it laid the foundation for his landscape painting until well into the 20th century.

In 2008, another Monet, which had hung in the museum since 1954, was found to be a fake. But Czymmek is positive that this Monet is the real thing, pointing to an old sticker on the back of the painting from the Berheim Jeune Gallery in Paris, which traded in some of Monet's works.

Czymmek noted that the elderly donor came into possession of the painting in the 1940's, but it is not clear where it had been during the Nazi period, from 1933 to 1945. "We cannot exclude the notion that this painting was possibly stolen from a previous owner by Nazis during the war," he said, "But the painting has been available for a few months now, and so far no one has claimed it."

"Spring mood in Vetheuil" is now on display for the general public in the Impressionist room at the Wallraf Richartz Museum in Cologne, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. The Wallraf-Richartz Museum is one of the three major museums in Cologne, Germany. It houses an art gallery with a collection of fine art from the medieval period to the early twentieth century. Part of its collection was used for the establishment of Museum Ludwig in 1976. Its collection contain a very impressive selection of art works from the 13th to 19th (and early 20th) centuries, including the world's largest collection of medieval art and major paintings by Rembrandt, Boucher, Rubens and van Dyke  and widest collection of impressionist and neo-impressionist art in Germany. Visit the museum's website at : http://www.wallraf.museum