the ledge below, the poppy in the centre is fresh, the one at the top is mature while the one hanging over the ledge is already wilting. Vanitas symbolism can also be found in the Still life with fruits, foliage and insects (Minneapolis Institute of Art). The fruit in the composition looks nice on first view but on closer inspection, it is clear it has already started to rot. The strong oak tree shows signs of blight. A stone in the foreground refers to the inevitable decay of buildings erected by humans, a theme that is reprised in the crumbling arch in the background on the right. In the Still life with flowers and a watch (Rijksmuseum) the inclusion of a watch and wilting flowers clearly emphasizes the vanitas symbolism of time destroying everything. Abraham Mignon painted a few pronkstillevens, the sumptuous still lifes that were popular in Flanders and the Dutch Republic from the 1640s. His work in this genre was influenced by Jan Davidsz. de Heem who played an important role in developing the genre during his residence in Antwerp. A representative example in this genre is the Still life with fruit and oysters (Rijksmuseum). Mignon's stylistic and thematic development bears witness to the blurring of boundaries between the distinctive specialties in still life painting such as vanitas pieces, game pieces, pronkstilllevens, etc. that started in the middle of the 17th century. This blurring allowed artists to experiment with the mixing of genres. An example is Mignon's Still life of game in a forest (Louvre, 1675) in which the traditional elements of a still life are transposed to a forest. The result is a mixing of earlier genre categories and conventions. The use of a forest floor as the setting for a still life piece was not entirely new as Otto Marseus van Schrieck had already introduced it. Nazi-looted art In 1938, the Nazi Gestapo seized Mignon's Blumenstück from the Jewish art collector Rudolf Guttmann in Vienna. Agents of Hitler's Fuhrermuseum acquired Blumenstück at the Dorotheum on October 10, 1943. The Monuments Men recovered it and moved to it the Central Collecting Point until 1951. It was sold at Christies Mauerbach Benefit Auction in October 1996. The German Lost Art Foundation currently lists seven artworks by Mignon, of which two have been the object of "amicable settlement". The Max Stern Art Restitution Project also lists a Mignon among