As Germany puts on the much-anticipated exhibition in Bonn of Cornelius Gurlitt’s disputed collection, a strange story has developed not too far away in Düsseldorf. The Stadtmuseum, which is administered by the city itself, had organized—but now cancelled—“Max Stern: from Düsseldorf to Montreal.” The exhibition was scheduled to open in February in Düsseldorf, before traveling to the Haifa art museum in September of 2018 and to the McCord Museum in Montreal in 2019. The city’s acknowledgement that the decision was based on a claim for restitution from the Max Stern Estate is a disturbing development that provides no sound reason to cancel a show about an important dealer who, it is undisputed, was a seminal figure of Nazi persecution.
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Topics:
Nuremberg laws,
Cologne,
Cornelius Gurlitt,
Germany,
The Art Newspaper,
Köln,
Nazi-looted art,
Düsseldorf,
The New York Times,
A Tragic Fate,
Max Stern from Düsseldorf to Montreal,
McCord Museum,
Reichskammer der bildenden Künste,
Dr. and Mrs. Max Stern Foundation,
Max Stern Restitution Project,
Girl from the Sabine Mountains,
Max Stern,
Haifa,
Francis Xavier Winterhalter,
Mädchen aus den Sabiner Bergen,
The Artist’s Children,
Wilhelm von Schadow,
Düsseldorf Kunstpalast,
Andreas Achenbach,
Sicilian Landscape,
Norwegian Landscape,
Galerie Max Stern,
Mayor Thomas Geisel
Two days after suspending their participation in the Advisory Commission on the return of cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution, especially Jewish property, often called the "Limbach Commission" after its presiding member Jutta Limbach (the Beratende Kommission im Zusammenhang mit der Rückgabe NS-verfolgungsbedingt entzogenen Kulturguts, insbesondere aus jüdischem Besitz), the heirs of Alfred Flechtheim withdrew from the proceedings entirely. The dispute concerns Violon et encrier (Violin and Inkwell) (1913) by Juan Gris in the Stiftung Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Art Collections Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia) in Düsseldorf.
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Topics:
Alfred Flechtheim,
Nazi-looted art,
Advisory Commission,
Beratende Kommission,
Restitution,
Düsseldorf,
World War II,
Limbach Commission,
Dr. Michael Hulton,
Juan Gris
From Dresden to Aschbach to Düsseldorf—New Scholarship in U.S. Archives Traces Hildebrand Gurlitt at War’s End, Could Affect Cornelius Gurlitt’s Claim to Good Faith Ownership
The Main Post has an article today (in German) by Christine Jeske tracing the late-war and post-war trajectory of Hildebrand Gurlitt and his now-infamous collection. The article is fascinating, and sheds considerable light on how the collection came through the war and how Gurlitt evaded greater scrutiny that might have revealed the trove’s whereabouts earlier. It also puts into context any claim Cornelius Gurlitt might now have to argue he took possession of the paintings from his father unaware of their provenance—what will be a critical argument, particularly if yesterday’s Cultural Property Restitution Law proposal by Bavaria becomes federal law in German.
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Topics:
Wiesbaden,
Cultural Property Restitution Law,
veschollene Kunst,
Franken,
Franconia,
Hildebrand Gurlitt,
Cornelius Gurlitt,
George Clooney,
Erik Berger,
Augsburg,
Dresden,
Nuremberg,
Fall Gurlitt,
Monuments Men,
Gurlitt Collection,
Karl Haberstock,
Kunstverein,
Entartete Kunst,
Munich,
Heiner Dikreiter,
Beutekunst,
Freiherr Gerhard von Pölnitz,
Bavaria,
Kulturgut-Rückgewähr-Gesetz,
Nürnberg,
Düsseldorf,
Schlüsselfeld,
Monuments Fine Arts and Archives,
Gemäldegalerie Dresden,
Christine Jeske,
Walter Paech,
degenerate art,
Städtische Galerie,
München,
Main Post,
Karl and Magdalene Haberstock Foundation,
Raubkunst,
Verjährung,
Nazi Raubkunst,
Aschbach
