by Josh Wilde

Created on: November 27, 2007

THE LEGACY

It was an embarrassment. A one million Euro embarrassment. And, for most of his 58 years, Jurgen Metz had no idea of what to do with it.

It could not be sold on the open market. It would open too many questions about his father. Questions that even today could destroy the entire family.

But with his ink company facing serious financial problems, he could not just leave it on his study wall. Not when its sale could save his employees' jobs. Jurgen prided himself that no one working for him had ever been fired or even laid off - at least, no one who did not deserve it.

His own financial future was secure enough, no matter what happened to Metz & Co., GmbH, but he would never be comfortable knowing he had closed the family business which had been manufacturing ink since the mid-1800's. It would mean failing the people who depended on him for their livelihoods.

It was not a large company, but neither was it tiny. It was just big enough to make Jurgen a solid member of the Frankfurt business community but small enough so that he knew all his employees by name. In recent years, however, Metz had been slowly priced out of the market by Far Eastern competition. Only a major retooling would allow him to stay competitive and his one source for that - together with some heavy borrowing - was the Rembrandt.

While not a major piece of art, its origin was unquestioned. His father, Hans, had had it authenticated by experts before paying less than ten percent of its worth. The old man had taken pride in that payment, Jurgen remembered with disgust, as if it had somehow washed the blood off of his hands.

"I could have had it for nothing," Hans would tell him over and over. "Others did just that; they took what they wanted. But I was always too honest. I believed in paying for what I got."

When he was very young, Jurgen believed that. When he got older, he realized that his father's payment had been prompted less by conscience than German practicality.

A Rembrandt is not like a bar of gold. It has a history; a known history. Art historians can tell you who owned it, when they owned it, and to whom they sold it. Payment for the Rembrandt - inadequate though it might have been - provided Hans with a bill of sale. The Rembrandt was legally his, and his ownership would be upheld by any court in the world, not only the courts of Nazi Germany.

Even after the war, Hans felt no need to hide the Rembrandt. It had been purchased from Feldstein long before the war began and

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