A girl in half profile: dark hair, red cap, alert look. The painting (oil on cardboard, 41.5 x 35.5 cm) shows Katia Pringsheim, later Thomas Mann's wife, portrayed by Franz von Lenbach. The famous Munich painter produced numerous portraits of members of the Pringsheim family - but this portrait, which is being presented to the public for the first time today, was only recently identified - its provenance had been concealed when it was sold in 1940.

Talking about the history of the portrait as well as difficulties and opportunities in dealing with Nazi fugitive property:

Katrin Stoll, head of the auction house Neumeister, the provenance expert Alfred Grimm (former Bavarian National Museum), the historian Dirk Heißerer, the managing director of the Thomas Mann House Heike Catherina Mertens and Robert Schoenhofer, whose grandfather acquired the "Portrait of a Girl" in 1940. Afterwards, Robert Schoenhofer, together with Thomas Mann's grandson Frido Mann and Tamara Marwitz, great-granddaughter of Hedwig Pringsheim, representing the descendants of Hedwig and Alfred Pringsheim, will hand over the painting to the Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades.