A German auction house says it has withdrawn from sale a painting that the Max Stern estate claims was one of hundreds the Jewish art dealer was forced to sell off by the Nazis.

Karl-Sax Feddersen, responsible for legal affairs at the Duesseldorf-based Lempertz auction house, said the picture by Alexander Adriaenssen had been pulled from Saturday's sale and its owner notified.

The estate claims it is one of some 400 works from Stern's collection sold under duress between 1935 and 1937. It is working to recover all of them.