Provenance Research:
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (Bavarian State Painting Collections)
Title
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (Bavarian State Painting Collections)
Research into Nazi-confiscated works of art in the Collections
In 1999 a post was created at the Bavarian State Painting Collections for provenance research to be undertaken on all works purchased since 1933. In 2002 funding was withdrawn for the post and research was stopped for a number of years.
In 2008 provenance research recommenced for purchases for all collections of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. The Collections consider that all collections of works of art executed before 1945 and acquired after 1933 could contain looted items . The aim of the research is "to verify, wherever possible, the complete provenance of purchased art works formerly in Jewish ownership and hence to contribute to the clarification of ownership rights. "
In December 1999 a claim was made by the Commission for Looted Art in Europe (CLAE) on behalf of the von Gotthilf family for the painting Des Menschen Leben währet siebenzig Jahre-Die Drei Lebensalter (1898) by Leopold von Kalckreuth which CLAE had located in the Collections. The Collections' research led to an agreement to return the painting in March 2000. An account of this restitution process was published by Ilse von zur Mühlen in a collection of essays issued by the Coordination Office for Lost Cultural Assets.
Contact Information for all enquiries about spoliation of works of art during the Holocaust and World War II period :
Dr. Andrea Christine Bambi
Curator
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen
Barer Straße 29
80799 München
Tel:
Email:bambi@pinakothek.de
Sources
Central Registry Archives , Correspondence, 21 October 2002; Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen website 2 May 2008.
Ilse von zur Mühlen, "Leopold von Kalckreuths Triptychon "Die Drei Lebensalter"-Der Fall Elisabeth Gotthilf" In: Beiträge öffentlicher Einrichtungen der Bundersrepublik Deutschland zum Umgang mit Kulturgütern aus ehemaligem jüdischen Besitz, Veröffentlichungen der Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste Magdeburg, Band 1(2001), 244-267
Text in German, Summary in English
