2023-08-21 08:42:00
In 2002, the von der Heidt Museum in Wuppertal purchased a painting by the German artist Max Liebermann “Portrait of Felix Benjamin”, written in 1921. After an examination, experts came to the conclusion that the family of the entrepreneur Benjamin lost the canvas as a result of persecution by the National Socialists. The painting was returned to the owners, and then a fund associated with the museum bought the work, so now it will legally add to the collection.
“Portrait of Felix Benjamin” by Max LiebermannPhoto: Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal/dpa/picture alliance
This is a successful example of the successful return of works of art to their heirs or rightful owners, provided they are still alive. Under National Socialism, they often had to sell cultural property under duress or face confiscation. And the provenance of a work of art – the establishment of the entire chain of its owners – is no less important than its origin and the history of its creation. “Such information increases the value of a work of art. Not in a material sense, but as a carrier of history and memory,” explains Anna Baumberger, a researcher on the origin of the Wuppertal Museum exhibits.
Labels of four colors will indicate gaps in the history of the exhibits
Walking through the rooms where the works of art that make up the permanent exhibition of the Museum von der Heidt are displayed, you can see that next to some of them dots of four colors are pasted: green, yellow, orange and red. This is a special color code that the museum uses to acquaint visitors with the history of exhibits that entered the collection after 1933 and were created before 1945, Baumberger points out.
Green indicates that the past of the painting or sculpture is not marred by Nazi confiscation, yellow indicates ambiguities and the need for further research, orange indicates that the history of the exhibit’s ownership from 1933 to 1945 is questionable and requires further study. Red, on the other hand, means that the origin of the work of art has been unambiguously compromised, the search for the rightful owners is underway, and a report on suspicion of confiscation has been sent to the database of works of art seized by the Nazis.
For example, “Portrait of Else Lasker-Schüler” (Else Lasker-Schüler), painted by Yankel Adler in 1924, is supplemented with a green mark. And in the origin of the engraving by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (Karl Schmidt-Rottluff) “The Tower of Stralsund” in 1912, there are white spots, and therefore a yellow mark.
Other museums use a similar system. In some places it has been operating for 6-7 years, says Lena Grundhuber of the German Center for Lost Cultural Property.
Missing documents – a typical situation
The innovation in Wuppertal was well received by the public, emphasizes Anna Baumberger. The developed code tells what the museum staff managed to find out about the work of art, and what else is not, the researcher explains. In the museum, she is responsible for about 7,000 exhibits. The origin of every third of them is not in doubt, while the rest are missing some documents. The expert calls such a situation typical.
Baumberger does not work alone. She is assisted by specialists from other fields – for example, restorers. But the team now and then faces difficulties. For example, it is not possible to establish a complete chain of owners of a work of art. Or there are documents that accompanied the artwork when it was sold at auction, but it is not known exactly why it got there and whether the owner acted voluntarily.
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