By Jonathan Stempel 
 
 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Heirs to the German Jewish art dealer Alfred Flechtheim on Monday sued the German state of Bavaria, seeking the return of eight paintings by Max Beckmann, Juan Gris and Paul Klee that they said were looted by the Nazis. According to the complaint, the eight paintings include Beckmann's "Duchess of Malvedi" (1926), "Still Life with Cigar Box" (1926), "Quappi in Blue" (1926), "Dream—Chinese Fireworks" (1927), "Champagne Still Life" (1929) and "Still Life with Studio Window" (1931); Gris' "Cruche et Verre Sur un Table" (1916) and Klee's "Grenzen des Verstandes" (1927). Alfred Flechtheim (1878-1937) was one of the most important German art collectors at the beginning of the 20th century. According to the heirs' complaint, Flechtheim was forced to leave the paintings behind when he fled Berlin for Paris in May 1933 to escape Nazi persecution, four months after Adolf Hitler seized power. Alfred Flechtheim: Fighter for the avant-garde Dispute over Kokoschka After Flechtheim’s escape, a close associate appropriated his estate and made money from his belongings. According to the complaint by Michael Hulton and his stepmother Penny, the widow of Flechtheim's nephew and heir Henry Hulton, Flechtheim was forced to leave the paintings behind when he fled Berlin for Paris in May 1933 to escape Nazi persecution, four months after Adolf Hitler seized power. They claim the Bavarian State Paintings Collections title claims to the paintings are “defective because it was rooted in the seizure of Flechtheim’s property in violation of international law.” 
 
 The Bavarian defendants claim that Flechtheim sold his paintings to Gunther Franke in 1932. “Among the evidence that proves this theft is the recent scandal in which Bavaria is directly implicated, namely, the seizure of 1,280 works of art from the Munich apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt in 2012 that were amassed by Gurlitt’s father, the Nazi art dealer and Adolf Hitler’s art agent Dr. Hildebrand Gurlitt, during the Nazi era,” the complaint states. Representatives of The Bavarian State Paintings Collections did not immediately respond to request for comment.
– Renowned German art dealer Alfred Flechtheim had been named part of the "Jewish world conspiracy" in the Nazi press even before 1933, so when Adolf Hitler came to power, he chose to flee, and died 4 years later in London, reports Courthouse News. His art collection remained in Berlin and at least eight paintings are now part of the Bavarian State Paintings Collection, reports the Art Newspaper. They should instead be with Flechtheim's heirs in the US and England, per a lawsuit filed against the state of Bavaria in US District Court in Manhattan on Monday. The widow of Flechtheim's sole heir (his nephew) and the nephew's son cite "a presumption of international law" that sales of Jewish property after Jan. 30, 1933, aren't legitimate because they were made under duress. And so in the case of the six paintings by Max Beckmann and two others by Juan Gris and Paul Klee, timing is the issue. The Bavarian State Paintings Collection argues the paintings, worth up to $20 million, were sold by Flechtheim in 1932. Penny Hulton of England and stepson Michael Hulton of San Francisco—who've been locked in a years-long battle with Bavaria over what Deutsche Welle calls "one of the world's most disputed estates"—say the paintings were sold after he left the country in May 1933. They "would have remained accessible to Flechtheim but for the climate at the time," their lawyer tells Reuters. "The state-level program of Aryanizing Jewish businesses made the confiscation possible." (These Jewish heirs want back their gold and jewels.)