A GROUND-breaking exhibition that has, until now, only been seen in New York, Toronto and London has opened in Hereford Museum and Art Gallery, Broad Street.

Auktion 392: Reclaiming the Galerie Stern Dusseldorf tells the unique story of German-Jewish gallery owner, Dr Max Stern.

In the autumn of 1937, Dr Max Stern received a letter he had hoped for two years to avoid, a final letter from officials of the National Socialist goverment of Germany ordering the closure of the Galerie Stern.

The forced sale, Auktion 392, of the contents of the Dusseldorf art gallery, which had been run successfully by the Stern family since 1913 took place on November 13, 1937.

The sale saw more than 200 Old Masters and northern European and works of art go under the hammer, and was held at the Kunstauktionshaus Math Lempertz in Cologne.

Auktion 392: Reclaiming the Galerie Stern, through an innovative installation of documents and reproductions of art works, dismantles a specific result of the thinly veiled racist legislation devised by Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, to eliminate Jews from any participation in the German art world.

The Galerie Stern, once a significant presence in Dusseldorf, is reinserted into the shifting cultural landscapes of Germany and Northern Europe during the 1920s and 30s and visitors are invited to learn about the challenges confronting those who seek the return of art sold under duress.

The exhibition has been made possible through the support of the Stern estate and its three principal beneficiaries, Concordia University, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and McGill University. This reflects a collective commitment on their part to the legacy of Dr Max Stern, an individual whose career in exile benefited all those with interests in art in Canada, and the exhibition focuses on the circumstances that took him there.

As an education project, the exhibition issues a call for research on the many other art galleries and auction houses in Europe forced to close because of Jewish ownership, and for the implementation of tighter regulations in the art trade in order to hasten the restitution of hundreds of thousands of cultural objects remaining in private and public collections after suffering the same fate as the works from Galerie Stern.

Auktion 392: Reclaiming the Galerie Stern Düsseldorf has been conceived, researched and curated by the Faculty of Fine Arts Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada and is toured and presented by Ben Uri Gallery, The London Jewish Museum of Art, benuri.org.uk Auktion 392 runs until Saturday, March 7. Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm. Admission is free.