In 1621 the Dutch master Peter Paul Rubens painted a moving and dramatic portrait of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, a Doctor of the Church and one of the Four Greek Fathers, as part of a series of paintings commissioned for the ceiling of Antwerp’s Jesuit Church of St. Charles Borromeo in Belgium. A century later, lightning struck the Antwerp Church, setting it on fire and destroying all of Rubens’ ceiling paintings.
However, some preparatory oil sketches made by the Flemish artist survived the tragic event. Oil sketches including one of St. Gregory of Nazianzus were part of the private collection of the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the Castle of Friedenstein, Germany. Given that the original paintings had been destroyed, these sketches became the only evidence of Rubens' work for Antwerp church at the height of the Baroque era.
For centuries, they were kept at Firedstein Castle, an early Baroque palace built in 1654, first as part of the dukes’ collection and then, after the 1918 German revolution took away noble titles from the family, as part of the collection run by the public foundation that took over the palace. But in 1945, as World War II was finally coming to an end, some of the precious sketches went missing.
According to Artnet News, the sketches were moved to the town of Croburg to protect them from Soviet forces, and during that transfer, some were taken by their former owners, the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg, and illegally put on the market.
A sudden reappearance and eventual return
As it often happens with stolen artworks, the sketch of St. Gregory of Nazianzus somehow reappeared years later as part of another art collection, in this case the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, currently known as Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Curators at the Buffalo art institution had no idea that the Rubens sketch had been stolen. As reported by Artnet News, they bought the sketch in 1952 from a New York art gallery.
It wasn’t until 2020, when Buffalo AKG Art Museum contacted Christie's to sell the oil sketch, that the background story of the artwork was unveiled. Experts at the auction house researched the drawing and realized that it was part of a stolen lot from Germany at the end of World War II.
As reported in the New York Times, Christie’s explained the origins of the drawing and persuaded the Buffalo AKG Art Museum to return the artwork to Germany. "St. Gregory of Nazianzus" was returned, at below market value, to the collection of the Friedenstein Castle partly thanks to a donation from the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation, which acquires artworks for German museums.
A reunion with his fellow saints
“Friedenstein Stiftung Gotha aims to restore the historical integrity of the collection, especially with regard to this highlight, the set of five sketches by Rubens,” said the Friedenstein Castle’s director Tobias Pfeifer-Helke in a press release, “They will be made accessible to the public once again in their historical context. I am delighted, therefore, that with ‘St. Gregory of Nazanzius’ one of the lost works has found its way back to Friedenstein. I am most grateful to the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung for their generous support and I look forward to our constructive collaboration with all concerned.”
"St. Gregory of Nazianzus" will now join two other returned sketches belonging to the same series, “St. Athanasius” and “St. Basil,” which were both taken to the Soviet Union at the end of the war and returned to Germany in 1958. Two other sketches from that series, “The Prophet Elijah” and “St. Augustine,” both listed as wartime losses by the German Lost Art Foundation, have yet to be returned.
“Friedenstein Castle’s collections suffered more than most German cultural institutions from embezzlement, war losses, and removals to the Soviet Union,” Martin Hoernes, General Secretary of the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation told the New York Times. “The recovery of the Rubens sketch will surely pave the way for further returns in which, depending on the circumstances of the loss, the amount paid is not a reflection of the market value but a fair settlement.”
