In 1955, Beckmann’s painting Descent from the Cross was bequeathed to MoMA by Curt Valentin, a German-born New York art dealer, who sold many of the "degenerate" works removed from German museums through his Buchholz Gallery to American institutions and collectors. Here, the large canvas with its German title, Kreuzabnahme, is seen in the center of the wall. On July 19, the day the defamatory exhibition opened, Beckmann left Germany, going first to the Netherlands and then to the United States. He never set foot on German soil again.