A rare photograph from the early 1940s reveals that Lucas Cranach the Elder's painting *Cupid complaining to Venus* (1526-27), now a masterpiece in the National Gallery, London, once hung in Adolf Hitler's private Munich apartment. The image, previously published in Germany by provenance expert Birgit Schwarz, appears for the first time in an English-language publication. The painting was acquired by the National Gallery in 1963 from E. and A. Silberman Galleries in New York, which provided a false provenance. It had been taken from a warehouse of recovered art in 1945 by American journalist Patricia Lochridge, who smuggled it into the United States.
The discovery matters because it raises urgent questions about the painting's ownership during the Nazi period—specifically, whether it was seized from a Jewish collector or subject to a forced sale. The National Gallery has acknowledged the lack of proper provenance for 1933-45 and welcomes further information. This case highlights ongoing challenges in art restitution and the importance of tracing looted art, even when works have been held by major institutions for decades.