Three New Members Are Added but German Museums Can Still Decline to Participate
After nearly a year of hinting at changes the Advisory Commission in Germany that makes recommendations to state museums on claims for allegedly Nazi-looted works in their collections (“Beratende Kommission im Zusammenhang mit der Rückgabe NS-verfolgungsbedingt entzogener Kulturgüter, insbesondere aus jüdischem Besitz,” or “Advisory Commission on the return of cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution, especially Jewish property”), the federal government announced last week the addition of three new members. Yet despite public outcry over the outdated and opaque procedures of the commission (better known as the Limbach Commission, in reference to the late Jutta Limbach, presiding member and former judge of the Constitutional Court), none of the fundamental flaws in the panel have been confronted or addressed. Instead, the occasion has served as little more than another photo opportunity for federal Minister of Culture Monika Grütters, whose visage dutifully accompanies all the recent announcements.
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Topics:
Legislation,
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,
Stefan Koldehoff,
Beratende Kommission,
Gurlitt,
NS Raubkunst,
Restitution,
Bavarian State Paintings Collection,
Looted Art,
World War II,
Süddeutsche Zeitung,
Monika Grütters,
Limbach Commission,
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen,
Raphael Gross,
Gary Smith,
Marion Eckart-Hofer,
Simon Dubnow Institute,
American Academy in Berlin,
Rudiger Mahlo,
Jewish Claims Conference
Quite by coincidence, two stories we have covered in the last few days have centered around the claims by the heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn Bartholdy, a Jewish banker and art collector who was the target of Nazi persecution before he died in 1935: Julius Schoeps, Edelgard von Lavergne-Peguilhen, and Florence Kesselstatt. Another common thread has been the Bavarian State Paintings Collection (the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung), which is in the news again for possible claims, but this time from heirs of quite a different sort.
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Topics:
Paul von Mendelssohn Bartholdy,
Fritz Bamberger,
Focus,
Florence Kesselstatt,
Karl Blechen,
Karl Ernst Baumann,
Julius Schoeps,
Dr Alexander Lewin,
Germany,
Anselm Feuerbach,
Hans Sachs,
German Advisory Commission for the Return of Cultu,
Gurlitt case,
Edelgard von Lavergne-Peguilhen,
Julius and Clara Freund,
Eva Braun,
Nürnberger Institut,
Johann J. August von der Embde,
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
'Stürmer-Bibliothek',
Wilhelm Leibl,
Jim Tobias,
Portrait der Familie von Dithfurth,
Restitution,
Bavarian State Paintings Collection,
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung,
Der Spiegel,
World War II,
Peasant Girl without a Hat and with a White Headcl,
Pinakothek der Moderne,
Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation,
Austria,
Andrea Bambi Mountain Landscape on the Spanish Coa,
Jutta Limbach,
Washington Principles,
Der Stürmer,
Welfenschatz,
Limbach Commission
