transfer – Zeitschrift für Provenienzforschung und Sammlungsgeschichte | Journal for Provenance Research and the History of Collection

Interview mit Alexander Sachse, Koordinator für Provenienzforschung beim Museumsverband des Landes Brandenburg e.V.

2023-12-12T15:40:14+01:00

Keywords: Provenance research; Brandenburg; research coordination; museum cooperation; local museums

Interview with The Right Honourable Sir Donnell Deeny and The Right Honourable Sir Alan Moses, Chairmen of the Spoliation Advisory Panel

2023-12-12T15:42:01+01:00

Keywords: Provenance research; Nazi-era; United Kingdom; art and cultural property restitution; national collections

Interview mit Dr. Pia Schölnberger, Leiterin der Kommission für Provenienzforschung in Österreich

2023-12-12T15:42:55+01:00

Keywords: Provenance research; Nazi period; Austria; Art Restitution Act; Art Restitution Advisory Board

Titelei

2023-12-19T19:29:11+01:00

Obligation and Libido

2023-12-12T15:57:42+01:00

The article focuses on Arendt’s stay in Germany between late 1949 and early 1950. It discusses her attempts to conduct a thorough survey and find the best solution (beyond Germany) for the books, archival materials, Judaica artifacts and works of art looted by the Nazis from Jewish communities and private collections which were upon their discovery stored by the US army in central collecting points since 1945. It reflects on these four winter months in Arendt’s life as revealed through her official reports to her superiors in New York and in her personal correspondence with her husband Heinrich Blücher and her close friends, hoping to shed new light on a hitherto less familiar chapter in the life of this fascinating and controversial woman. During these months, Arendt paid several visits to her former PhD instructor Karl Jaspers in Basle. She also harbored a more clandestine wish to meet another former university professor of hers – the controversial philosopher Martin Heidegger. Between 1924 and 1926, Arendt and Heidegger had conducted a secret love affair when she was his student at the university of Marburg. By 1949, Heidegger, a member of the NSDAP since 1932, was forbidden from teaching at university. He was considered tainted by this affiliation by many of his former friends, colleagues and former students. While some biographers of Arendt discussed her reunions with her former teachers in light of her personal and intellectual personae, little attention was given to the link with her important mission for the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction (JCR). This was most likely due to the difficult personality of Arendt which was “flattened” after the 1960ies through the prism of her writing about the Eichmann trial while other different aspects of her public activity in the field of restitution were either forgotten or completely ignored.

Keywords: Hannah Arendt; Wiesbaden; JCR (Jewish Cultural Reconstruction); Karl Jaspers; Martin Heidegger

From a Prince, to Hermann Göring, to the Mauritshuis

2023-12-12T15:58:46+01:00

When between April and June 1945 the Allies searched Carinhall, Hermann Göring’s (1893-1946) country house at Schorfheide, they found a vast number of artworks. One of the artworks found was the panel painting Virgin and Child by the German Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553). Today, the painting can be viewed at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, the Netherlands. When I started my research on the provenance of Virgin and Child, a provenance reconstruction of the panel painting was published online by the Mauritshuis. However, the information provided was incomplete and left room for multiple questions. Using the back of the panel in combination with information found in databases such as the Munich Central Collecting Point, archival documents from the Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit, and other sources, I was able to verify and expand on the information provided by the Mauritshuis, as well as dismiss some false information. Through my research on Virgin and Child I was able to trace is provenance from the early 20th century until the present. My research also offers a hypothesis for what happened to the panel between June 1940 and 1946 – a period of the object history previously clouded in mystery.

Keywords: Provenance research; Hermann Göring; Carinhall; Lucas Cranach the Elder; Mauritshuis

Possible Futures for Colonial Collecting Institutions

2023-12-12T16:00:04+01:00

This article explores how collecting institutions with deeply colonial roots can move into a decolonial future existence, through an in-depth study of historical societies in the United States. Examining their historic roots in colonialism of the United States and the persistence of these colonial identities in spite of a variety of evolutionary trends over the 20th century, this article asks: what decolonial possibilities exist for their future? If institutional shifts have not undone the colonial identities of some collecting institutions, what can? Turning to Sarah Ahmed’s theory on queer use and Saidiya Hartman’s method of critical fabulation, I suggest practical applications of queer use and critical fabulation for decolonializing historical societies and I demonstrate how this theory is already in practice in Terese Guinsatao Monberg’s writing about the work of the Filipino American National Historical Society. Through this close study of one type of collecting institution, my intention is to set a roadmap for other types of libraries, archives, and special collections to scrutinize the colonial practices imbued in their institutional identities and to explore ways these can be undone.

Keywords: Historical societies; United States; queer use; decolonization; colonialism

Negotiating the Return

2023-12-12T16:01:06+01:00

The Boğazköy restitution case, which unfolded between 1906 and 2011, centered on the restitution of over 10.000 cuneiform tablets and two Hittite sphinxes unearthed from the Boğazköy archaeological site in modern-day Turkey. The case began in 1906 when the artifacts were discovered during excavations led by Hugo Winckler and Theodore Makridi Bey in a joint venture between the Müze-i Hümayun (now Istanbul Archaeology Museums) and the German Oriental Society. Between 1915 and 1917, the artifacts were transported to Berlin for restoration with the intention of repatriating them after cleaning, repair and decoding. Turkey’s initial demand for the return of the sphinx occurred in 1938, but restitution was delayed due to wartime security concerns and the complex geopolitical landscape following the Second World War. In 1974, Turkey renewed its efforts to reclaim the tablets and the sphinx, ultimately appealing to the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property in 1987. The tablets were repatriated in 1987, whilst the sphinx was returned in 2011. This case-study delves into the historical facts by examining archival documents from the Republican Archives of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey and the Central Archive of the Berlin State Museums. It sheds light on the intricate negotiations and changing power dynamics between the respective museum authorities, underscoring the vital role of provenance research in comprehending the intricacies of cultural heritage restitution.

Keywords: Boğazköy Sphinxes; cuneiform tablets; restitution case; cultural property; provenance research

Plans of an Unrealized Thermal Hotel in the Hungarian Museum of Architecture, and its Provenance

2023-12-12T16:02:01+01:00

Hungary’s most important architectural collection is held by the Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument Protection Documentation Centre. The repeated reorganization of the Hungarian institutional monument protection system determined the history of the Museum since its foundation in 1968. It moved several times and nowadays still works in a rented office and storage building. The institution operates in its current form together with the Monument Protection Documentation Centre since 2017. The plans for the unrealized hotel of the Széchenyi Baths – one of the main tourist attractions in Budapest – form part of the museum’s collection. The hotel was designed by Ede Dvořák, the architect of the baths. For financial reasons, the hotel was never realized. The museum acquired the bequest of Ede Dvořák in 1979, together with several items from his former superior, Győző Czigler. This article presents the history of the plans and their author, then focuses on the provenance of the bequest which is a remarkable collection of the museum from the era of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

Keywords: Hungary; architecture; design; collection; provenance

Die Sammlungen Deutsch und Borchardt-Cohen als Deposita im Kunstmuseum Basel – zwei Fallbeispiele zur kritischen Quellenauswertung

2023-12-12T15:51:18+01:00

Between 1933 and 1945, politically ‘neutral’ Switzerland with its broad network of renowned museums was one of the most important places for the storage of works of art by emigrants fleeing from neighboring countries under Nazi rule. This article outlines the history of the art deposits at the Kunstmuseum Basel based on a critical evaluation of archival sources. The museum’s deposit book constitutes the main source on the historical deposits at the Kunstmuseum Basel. It lists more than 200 names, not only of Swiss collectors, art dealers and institutions but also of various well-known art collecting emigrants from Germany, such as Alfred and Eva Cassirer, Carl Sachs, Hugo Simon, Julius Freund and Nell Walden. Documentation from the museum’s archive also reveals the circumstances of the objects’ storage. Case studies of the Deutsch and Borchardt-Cohen collections, which were deposited at the Kunstmuseum at the same time, give an impression of research possibilities and help clarify various historical confusions. The findings gained from this analysis concern the museum’s depositary practices and might benefit future museum operations as well as relevant art historical research.

Keywords: Deposit; Switzerland; Kunstmuseum Basel; Collection Deutsch; Collection Borchardt-Cohen

Identifying Old Collection Marks on Hellenistic and Roman Terracottas Associated with the Collection of Daniel Marie Fouquet

2023-12-12T15:52:21+01:00

Close examination of fifty-six terracottas in the Menil Collection associated with the collection of Daniel Marie Fouquet (1850-1914) has revealed a series of previously unstudied old labels. These labels, primarily occurring as three- or four-digit numbers in black ink directly on the object, appear to have been added in the early 20th century. These old labels, which were present when the pieces were acquired by the Menil Foundation in 1971 and 1972, do not match with current accession numbers, and are not connected with any known publications. After distinguishing these labels on objects in the Menil Collection, similar ink marks have been identified on objects associated with the Fouquet Collection in other institutions. While approximately half of these old labels occur on objects confirmed as previously belonging to the Fouquet Collection through the publication history, the other half are on objects that are only ‘said to be from’ the collection without similar supporting evidence. This artice serves to document these old labels, to share the data publicly aiding in the recognition and identification of additional labels in other institutions, hopefully leading to additional provenance knowledge of these objects. Recent archival research has identified some of these numbers on a handwritten list accompanied by photographs from Fouquet, including a number of objects only formerly putatively connected with the Fouquet Collection. This research provides a potential avenue for provenance research into his collection and supports a stronger association of objects with similar ink labels to his collection.

Keywords: Daniel Marie Fouquet; terracottas; provenance research; ink labels; art market

„Exotische Kunst“ in Deutschland

2023-12-12T15:53:34+01:00

The Hamburger Museum für Völkerkunde financed Leo Frobenius three large expeditions to Africa for 165.000 Marks. In late 1906, Frobenius’ aggressive collecting strategy brought the museum into financial troubles. With the help of generous loans from Hamburg businessmen, the then-museum director Georg Thilenius managed to fulfill his financial obligations towards Frobenius by pawning the recently in the Congo acquired collection. Starting in 1905-1906, the interest of artists of the Fauves, cubists and the Brücke in African and Oceanic art lead to a paradigm shift in its perception on the art market. Based on innovative exhibition concepts in Budapest, Prague and Hagen, German gallerists and auctioneers sought to succeed in the trade with non-European art and to develop new business models by applying different strategies. They benefited from colonial trade structures and a close network to Paris art dealers like Paul Guillaume or Joseph Brummer who in 1915 financed the book Negerplastik (Negro Sculpture) by Carl Einstein as an advertising effort. The climax of this development was reached in 1930 with the auctioning of Czech writer Joe Hloucha’s collection in Berlin and the sale of the Mosse collection’s Benin bronzes in 1934.

Keywords: Carl Einstein; Alfred Flechtheim; Otto Feldmann; Benin Bronzes; extra-European art

History of the Collections of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Museum

2023-12-12T15:54:47+01:00

How does the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Museum approach the issue of the restitution of cultural property? What research policy does it implement regarding the history and constitution of the collections it preserves? What projects have been initiated that contribute to documenting the provenance of cultural goods? This article summarizes the methodological approach of the institution, which has started to prioritize, in its scientific and cultural policy, the research into the history of its collections and their provenance. Multidisciplinary research projects and multi-institutional partnerships are carried out with scientific teams in the countries of origin and together with indigenous communities to shed light on the shared history of the collections. These joint research projects bear witness to the evolution of professional practices and a change of paradigm: the history of and discourse on the collections kept in the museum are not the monopoly of the institution but are constructed with professionals from the countries of origin in a more open and collaborative conception of heritage policies. This article presents: 1) an overview of the political and legal contexts in France in which requests for the restitution of cultural property are made, 2) the museum’s research policy on the history of collections, and 3) some results of provenance research through two case-studies of objects from colonial contexts in Africa.

Keywords: Provenance research; colonial contexts; Africa; returns; museal policy

Return of the Ancestors

2023-12-12T15:56:05+01:00

The following paper presents a project in progress to reprocess and restitute photographs, diary entries, and publications of the German anthropologist Egon von Eickstedt, whose research trip to then Ceylon in the 1920ies made an important contribution to the historiography of Sri Lanka’s indigenous people and their contribution to the country’s history. The paper was written in a multi-perspective way by three different authors (Dr. Maria Schetelich, Indologist, and Carola Krebs, ethnologist and custodian of South Asia collections at the GRASSI Museum of Ethnology Leipzig) and it mainly gives the word to a representative of a community of origin, Mr. Kavinda Bibile, to whom the files and records stored in Germany were made accessible. The concerned museum collection comprises 280 artefacts, 400 photographs, diaries and numerous publications written in German.

Keywords: Bibile; Veddah; Egon von Eickstedt; intangible heritage; history of Sri Lanka

Ludwig Tieck als Bücherkäufer

2023-12-12T15:44:20+01:00

Since 2014, the research project Ludwig Tieck’s Library. Anatomy of a Romantic Comparatist Book Collection (FWF P32038; directed by Achim Hölter) has conducted the virtual reconstruction of the library of German romanticist Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853). It contained 17.000 volumes and was auctioned in Berlin in 1849/50. Several major European libraries took part in the auction, as well as numerous individuals. We have located about 5.000 of the volumes as documented in the auction catalogue and within Tieck’s correspondence at 23 European libraries, and we have recorded our findings in a database in accordance with current bibliographic standards. The project was and is – not exclusively, but to a large extent – a huge endeavor of provenance research. Extensive holdings were examined and checked for Tieck’s ownership in libraries that are proven to have purchased books in the auction of 1849/50. In the course of our examinations, we recorded bibliographical information and essential material attributes, as well as all indications of former ownership and use. Along with this description and recording of Tieck’s book possessions in a database so central to the project, our endeavors also resulted in an overview of the previous owners of Tieck’s books, of his buying practices as a client of European antiquarians supplying him with books, and of the auction and other catalogues he consulted. All this information offers a detailed insight into Tieck’s European (antiquarian) book trade network in the first half of the 19th century. In this paper, we present these findings along with an overview of the provenance of books within Tieck’s library, and thus in-depth information on the systematics of his “bibliomania”.

Keywords: Ludwig Tieck; book acquisition; book auction; library history; provenance research

„[…] sind im Zusammenhang mit der Verwertung der Schließfachinhalte keine Beschwerden aus der Bevölkerung gekommen.“

2023-12-12T15:45:40+01:00

During the ‘Aktion Licht’ operation in January 1962, the Ministry for State Security of the German Democratic Republic (1949-1990) searched safes of banks and former financial institutions throughout the republic. The action took place in all districts of the GDR simultaneously and under utmost secrecy. Thousands of safe deposit boxes, which had remained untouched since the Second World War, were opened and the contents were confiscated. Valuables including antiques, jewelry, artworks, porcelain, cutlery, precious metals and coins, as well as documents and savings books, documents of private individuals, of companies and authorities were taken for the purpose of political evaluation and for generating foreign currency. After the end of ‘Aktion Licht’, the Ministry for State Security handed over the confiscated objects to the Tresorverwaltung (treasury) at the Ministry of Finance of the GDR for sale. This top-secret action is one of various unlawful accessions in the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR. Research has not yet been able to clarify the details of the sale and the whereabouts of the confiscated objects, nor has the question why the choice fell on the Tresorverwaltung for selling the objects been pursued so far. Through her research on the Tresorverwaltung, the author of this article was able to clarify the circumstances of the sale, to identify the buyers of the objects, and to reconstruct the years of preparations for this secret action.

Keywords: Aktion ‘Licht’; GDR; Tresorverwaltung; bank safes; Ministry for State Security

Leo I. Lessmann’s Lost Judaica Collection

2023-12-12T15:46:51+01:00

In 1943, in the midst of the Second World War, one of the most important German private collections of Jewish ritual objects was stolen from a dwelling in the Old Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam. The owner, Leo I. Lessmann, had sent his collection from Hamburg to Amsterdam in 1936 to safeguard it from seizure by the Nazis. Lessmann himself flew from Germany to Palestine in 1939. Lessmann’s postwar efforts to find his collection remained unsuccessful. In the 1960ies, his claim for the vanished collection resulted in partial financial compensation. Three years ago, the authors of this article joined forces to reconstruct the circumstances of the looting and to locate (pieces from) the lost collection. The following report of this so-called quovadience research shows how rewarding an interdisciplinary approach and the use of archival and oral sources can be, albeit with limitations. Furthermore, this article increases our understanding of the often complicated looting processes, broadens our overview of migration paths of Jewish ritual objects, and of postwar claims for restitution or compensation, which always carried a sensitive load.

Keywords: Judaica; provenance research; Leo I. Lessmann; Nazi looting; Amsterdam

„[…] wird mir der in der Schweiz befindliche Kunstbesitz genommen, bin ich völlig mittellos.“

2023-12-12T15:48:52+01:00

Between 1933 and 1945, Swiss museums were holding deposits of cultural objects from collectors who emigrated from Germany to Switzerland due to persecution by the Nazi regime. This phenomenon cannot be observed to a comparable extent in any other country. Both, their quantity and the flexibility these deposits were accepted with and also transferred, are remarkable. A showcase example of an exiled art collection that was transferred several times within Switzerland is provided by the collection of the Jewish entrepreneur Carl Sachs (1868-1943). After paying all discriminatory taxes in Germany, he and his wife managed to emigrate to Basle in February 1939. Here he had to live from selling his works of art that he had managed to relocate to Switzerland. A total of six Swiss institutions (Kunsthaus Zürich, Kunstmuseum Basel, Auktionshaus Gutekunst & Klippstein in Berne, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Galerie Theodor Fischer in Lucerne, Kunsthalle Basel) stored, exhibited, purchased or helped to sell his artworks. The willingness the wishes of the depositor were met with – while those involved quickly and straightforwardly agreed to take over, present, help package, ship, purchase, and sell without asking for in return – is an interesting fact which is hard to explain. The article at hand presents different new aspects of the trading with so-called ‘Fluchtgut’ (literary ‘flight assets’). By analyzing previously unknown archival sources, it was possible to identify and localize yet more works belonging to the Carl Sachs collection.

Keywords: Carl Sachs; provenance research; collection reconstruction and relocation; ‘Fluchtgut’; Switzerland

Der Kunsthändler Johannes Hinrichsen

2023-12-12T15:49:49+01:00

Johannes Hinrichsen (born 1884 in Schleswig, perished 1971 in Altaussee) is to some extent still a phantom. Despite representing one of the most important German art dealers from the 1920ies to the 1940ies and being recorded in the list of Red Flag Names, his national and international trade network has not been the subject of academic research so far. This is partly due to the fact that a company archive is lacking, the older parts of which being burned in Berlin during the Second World War. There are also no remaining personal documents. Following intense research, at least some of Hinrichsen’s personal letters could be found within his family’s private archive in Northern Germany. Beyond that, at least part of Hinrichsen’s bankbooks have been recovered from Austrian private property. These offer far-reaching insights into his trade networks and are presented here for the first time ever to the academic public. Furthermore, this article analyzes sources related to the particular stages of Hinrichsen’s life. These include documents from his birthplace Schleswig, from the time he established himself as a sculptor and as an art dealer in Berlin and in Altaussee (Austria) as well as archival sources from higher level German authorities now held at the Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) and the Archives of the Federal Monument Office (Bundesdenkmalamt) in Austria.

Keywords: Johannes Hinrichsen; Hermann Göring; Berlin; Altaussee/Austria; Red Flag Name

Editorial 2/2023

2023-12-12T15:37:20+01:00