Courbet painting returns to Budapest

The 41.2x33cm canvas was purchased by a private Hungarian collector at Sotheby’s auctioning in May and has been taken to the Budapest museum for an inspection by experts, the museum said in a statement.

The painting was originally bought by Hungarian baron and art collector Ferenc Hatvany (1881-1958) in 1908 in Paris. At the end of WWII Hatvany’s famous collection of several hundred titles including the Courbet painting was deposited with a bank the vault of which was looted by the Soviet Army in 1945.

The painting surfaced again in May at an auction resulting from a restitution agreement reached between the heirs of Hatvany and the owner of the painting, the museum said.

The Bathers in the Forest has been purchased by a private individual who asked not to be named at a final price of 320,000 dollars, the Budapest museum said.