The Georg Kolbe Museum in Berlin will return a prominent sculpture looted during the Nazi era to the heirs of its original owner, a Jewish art collector and community leader named Stahl. The artwork, created by German sculptor Georg Kolbe, had been displayed for nearly five decades in the museum's sculpture garden and was one of its central attractions.

Stahl commissioned the fountain in 1922, and it stood in the garden of his villa in Berlin. In 1941, under Nazi racial laws, he was forced to sell both his home and the sculpture at a fraction of their true value. Soon after, he and his wife were deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he was murdered.

His widow survived the war and emigrated to the United States in 1950. The restitution marks a further step in addressing the injustices committed against Jewish collectors whose property was seized or sold under duress during the Nazi period.