HEIRS - Observations on Provenance

THE DEMAND IS THERE FOR ENGLISH

A new Web page run by Germany's Finance Ministry attempts to find the proper owners of looted Nazi art by documenting photos and descriptions of paintings and other pieces of art confiscated during the Third Reich.

Although parts of BADV's Web page are available in English, the detailed list of paintings and artworks are not. "We’ll translate the page if the demand is there," said König. (Tell Mr. Konig directly: Harald König harald.koenig@badv.bund.de; Tel.: 030/91608-1292)

An online catalog of some 100 art objects looted by the Nazis was posted online by the Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues (BADV) on Wednesday. The list includes a dozen early Renaissance portraits and biblical scenes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, best known for his oil renditions of Martin Luther, as well as an oil-on-canvas Rubens portrait from the 1600s of the Archbishop Antonio Trieste of Ghent.

The agency, which is a division of the Finance Ministry and has branches throughout Germany, was established last year to handle claims not only for looted art, antique furniture and other cultural artifacts, but also the restitution of real estate and property seized by the Nazis.

 

 Biblical themes are common in works by Lucas Cranach the Elder

According to the BADV's Harald König, the body of case-law dealing with restitution issues and compensation for assets confiscated by the Nazis is still growing more than 60 years after the end of the war.

 

Although most legal claims were settled in the post-war years in the former West Germany, the origins of much of the art unearthed in the eastern states after the reunification in 1990, has only recently begun being documented and returned to the original owners.

 

Mostly oil paintings on list of looted art 

 

So far the provenance of 36 objects out of nearly 600 that have been thoroughly documented have been or are in the process of being returned to Holocaust survivors or their descendents, said König.

 

Returning the art to its proper owners is nearly always a long legal process that can take years, or even decades, for owners to prove the art belongs to them.

 

The looted listed on the BADV's web page consists mainly of oil paintings, but also Italian, English and German antiques replete with detailed descriptions, historical references and a black and white photo. Most of the art has been loaned out to museums throughout Germany, including several works that had been originally intended for Hitler's museum in Linz, Austria.

 

The Nazis looted about 650,000 artworks in all according to estimates by the Jewish Claims Conference, of which only a fraction have been returned in spite of highly publicized restitution efforts since the mid-1990s. One of the main reasons for the meager returns was the difficulty involved in adequately documenting the provenance of art assets.

 

List needs to be in English for target audience

 

 Descendents of Holocaust survivors no longer speak German

"It's marvelous that such information is now being posted by the BADV," said Anne Webber, who is co-chair of the non-profit London-based Commission for Looted Art in Europe, though she added that the comprehensive list compiled by the agency would benefit from being translated into English.

 

Only last month, the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism, which published its comprehensive database of stolen Nazi art in German last December, provided an English page as well.

 

"Such sites need to be accessible to their target audiences worldwide," Webber said. "The rightful owners are not likely to live in German speaking countries, nor speak German anymore."

Diana Fong
Deutsche Welle - Wed, 01 Aug 2007

 

 

RUSSIAN SECRETS

The Guardian ran an interesting story today about German cultural losses during World War Two. At the war’s end Russian soldiers, called Trophy Brigades, removed thousands of artistic objects from Germany. They were directed by the highest Soviet military authorities to bring it back to the Soviet Union as well deserved booty.
German cultural institutions have recently itemized their missing treasures in an effort to push their claim forward for restitution.
According to Kate Connolly “The detailed inventory, which one critic said read like a "book of mourning" for lost German artefacts, contains a staggering array of treasures, most of which are believed to have been seized by foreign soldiers in 1945”.

Seemingly obvious is the argument that had the National Socialist German government not started the war in the first place, we would not be having this discussion.

So although not pro claimant in this particular case, I wonder why the Russians do not rise to the occasion of sharing the richness of the art that they brought out of Germany. What a loss to world culture. What a loss of opportunity for the world to behold works of this ilk: “sculptures by Nicola Pisano, a delicate relief by Donatello, late Gothic Madonnas and an exquisite array of Baroque works rendered in stone and wood. Other star pieces include paintings by Botticelli and Van Dyck.”

The secretiveness and denials lead me and others to wonder what else do the Russians hoard in their ‘secret depots in Russia and Poland” besides the newly publicized list of German museum trophy art.

We do know, for example, that the Russians also hold a secret lost library, stolen from the Jewish Synagogue in Rome, first by the Nazis and then, at war’s end, stuffed into the bellies of the Soviet planes waiting to transport the precious books back to the Soviet homeland. See my earlier blog ‘Hunt For Trophy Books’ or click here.

How much more went into those planes than what the Germans are now demanding back? We will never really know but rest assured that the storage depots and repositories all over Germany stored not just the fine art of the German museums being protected from the air raids.

Those repositories were also was the point of no return for the artworks stolen from thousands of Jewish families most of who met a fate unimaginable by us all. These are the artworks that the Russians should acknowledge exist in their depots and these are the objects that should be returned to the rightful owners.

NICELY DONE, NUREMBERG

© Stadtarchiv Nuernberg

A Gesture Worth Noting… This is BIG because it may be just the catalyst for other German institutions to reach out and involve the Heirs and Holocaust Survivor community in the process of provenance checking. Hopefully, the next step will be to publicize all their “provenance poor” objects in a viewable database so people can search on their own and make their own claims.

The City of Nuremberg has sent a request for information about the provenance of art works that came into their possession under dubious circumstances in the 1930-1940 period. They are seeking information about paintings, graphics, furniture and ceremonial objects that Jews were forced to hand over and were acquired through art dealers by the city. The aim is return of objects to rightful heirs.

Their research is based on documents in the City Archives, the Bavarian State Archives and the German National Museum. The documentation has big gaps and at the moment it is not possible to determine the former owners.

The Director, Dr. Dominik Radlmaier, asks for photos, details of flats(apartments) and personal records relating to stolen cultural assets to be sent to him.
Nuremberg City Archive site
Postanschrift Stadt Nuernberg stadtsarchiv 90317
Nurnberg 412

I like the comments that Jon Benjamin, of the London based Board of Deputies brings to the following story in the Jewish Chronicle. While the main story occurs in Nuremberg, the fallout of Holocaust plunder of cultural objects now reaches every country in the world. With respect to Great Britain- Benjamin is clear- the story of looted art in Britain still being displayed in galleries and museums is not over and will not go away without the assistance of government in helping the legitimate heirs recover their possessions. Jewish Chronicle

THE CASE FOR RESTITUTION

If the idea of following the trail of a Restitution Case in minute detail interests you, this is a fascinating website supporting a historical and legal opinion re: the Restitution of a Kirschner painting last year in Germany:
                                                                Expert Opinion

The Experts who wrote those opinions have also authored a book on cases of a similar vein - See my Post in the HEIRS Books Category. But this story is special because the Berlin Gallery Director recognized injustice, did the right thing, and then suffered the wrath of many in the German cultural community. The community who felt the Museum had the right to hold onto the magnificent Berlin Street Scene Kirshner painted in 1913.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who helped form The Bruecke (Bridge) Group of modern German artists in Dresden in 1905, was considered a "degenerate" artist by the Nazis. They confiscated more than 600 of his paintings from museums, galleries, and collections. They mounted a Degenerate Art Tour in 1937; mocking the works of Kirchner and others.

Kirchner committed suicide a year later.

I own a copy of Entarte Kunste, the database documenting the sales records of 15,000 paintings and drawings taken from the museums in Germany in 1937 and auctioned in Switzerland in June 1939. Kirchner shows up in almost every museum list and his paintings were purchased for tiny amounts by the Art Dealers who later sold them to the world's museums.

But why now? Did Anita Halpin feel guilty about her successful claim and want to present the case as a legal one? I think the vitriolic arguments heated this case way up and the cooling off effect of the legal opinion may have actually helped. And wouldn't it be a dream if the proceeds from Anita's 30 Million Euros windfall sale at Christie's November 8th could be used towards Holocaust Education? But this is only my dream.

POTSDAM CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS - Exclusive English Verson

Die Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer der Internationalen Konferenz „Eine Debatte ohne Ende? Raubkunst und Restitution im deutschsprachigen Raum“ in Potsdam (22.-24. April 2007) (THE FOLLOWING TRANSLATION WAS SUPPLIED BY DON HAINES, GERMAN TRANSLATION SERVICES. TORONTO , CANADA)

RESOLUTIONS:

1.    The Washington Principles of 1998 and the mutual declaration of the Federal government, states, and municipal umbrella organizations of 1999 are endorsed.

2.    There is unanimity that provenance research must be strengthened in Germany. Museums and cultural institutions are asked to carry out systematic, comprehensive provenance research, something to which their supporting agencies have committed themselves. The agencies supporting museums must provide sufficient funds to allow provenance research to be carried out. Existing deficits are to be worked off as quickly as possible. The results must be publicized promptly and are to be published in the freely accessible Lost Art Internet Database.

3.    The Federal Republic of Germany’s commitment under the Washington Principles and the mutual declaration of 1999 must now be realized in practice. In an individual case, that means that the prerequisites for fair and just solutions must be created in on-going restitution proceedings. However, this also means that the proceedings must be transparent.

4.    In contested cases, the Advisory Commission chaired by Professor Limbach should be able to issue recommendations, even where requested by only one party. The Commission’s recommendations and the detailed grounds on which they are based are to be published.

5.    Participants in the conference recommend, almost 10 years after the Washington Declaration, that a follow-up conference be organized at which the participating states present their experience and at which, if necessary, proposals for improved procedures in implementing the Washington Declaration be adopted.

Potsdam, den 24. April 2007