ICE Seizes Stolen Art From Florida’s Brogan Museum – Said To Be Taken During WWII

ICE seizes Romano painting said to be stolen by the Nazis.  Photo courtesy of ICE

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in Tallahassee, Florida yesterday served a seizure warrant on “Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged by a Rascal.”  The painting had been held at the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science at the request of the US Attorney’s office, northern district of Florida, while prosecutors determined whether the painting by Girolamo Romano’s was unlawfully taken from a Jewish family during World War II.  Now the artwork is now in federal custody.

Who will have final title and possession of the artwork ultimately will be determined by a federal district court judge.

[UPDATE: November 9, 2011 – Read more details here.]

Find the complete press release describing the seizure and issued by ICE here.  Also, listen to Chucha Barber, the Brogan Museum’s chief executive officer, who provides a short audio sketch of the ownership claims to the painting on PRI’s The World.

Thanks go to Gary Nurkin for alerting me to this news.