Provenance research on technical cultural property at the Deutsches Optisches Museum. Dr. Sören Groß conducts an object autopsy on a wooden peep-box acquired in 1936 (Inv. No. 8736100037154).
Deutsches Optisches Museum
Nazi-looted cultural property

Stiftung Deutsches Optisches Museum publishes anthology on technical cultural property

The Stiftung Deutsches Op­tis­ches Mu­se­um in Je­na has pub­lished an an­thol­o­gy based on the on­line work­shop held on 23 Septem­ber 2021 en­ti­tled His­torische Tech­nis­che In­stru­mente. Zirku­la­tion, Ansamm­lun­gen und Doku­mente des Entzugs zwis­chen 1933 und 1945 (“His­tor­i­cal tech­ni­cal in­stru­ments. Cir­cu­la­tion, col­lec­tions and doc­u­ments re­lat­ing to con­fis­ca­tion be­tween 1933 and 1945”). The as­so­ci­at­ed prove­nance re­search project IN­SIGHT D.O.M. – Prove­nien­zrecherchen zu Käufen, Schenkun­gen und Über­nah­men am Deutschen Op­tis­chen Mu­se­um zwis­chen 1933 und 1945 (“Prove­nance re­search on pur­chas­es, do­na­tions and ac­qui­si­tions at the Ger­man Op­ti­cal Mu­se­um be­tween 1933 and 1945”) is fund­ed by the Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion.

Mu­se­um prove­nance re­search in­to cul­tur­al prop­er­ty seized as a re­sult of Nazi per­se­cu­tion is not on­ly con­cerned with high-qual­i­ty art ob­jects and valu­able book col­lec­tions: for some time now, it has al­so fo­cused on ev­ery­day ob­jects and in par­tic­u­lar tech­ni­cal in­stru­ments, de­vices and mo­tor ve­hi­cles. Method­olog­i­cal ap­proach­es and the re­sults of prove­nance re­search in­to tech­ni­cal cul­tur­al prop­er­ty to date were dis­cussed for the first time at the work­shop or­gan­ised by the Deutsches Op­tis­ches Mu­se­um in Je­na in Septem­ber 2021. The an­thol­o­gy Tech­nis­ches Kul­turgut. Zirku­la­tion, Ansamm­lun­gen und Doku­mente des Entzugs zwis­chen 1933 und 1945(“Tech­ni­cal cul­tur­al prop­er­ty. Cir­cu­la­tion, col­lec­tions and doc­u­ments re­lat­ing to con­fis­ca­tions be­tween 1933 and 1945”) sum­maris­es the con­tri­bu­tions and re­sults of the con­fer­ence, as well as briefly in­tro­duc­ing the “Work­ing Group on Tech­ni­cal Cul­tur­al Prop­er­ty” that was es­tab­lished in April 2022. Nine prove­nance re­searchers from Ger­many and Aus­tria pro­vide in­sights in­to var­i­ous re­search projects on the prove­nance of tech­ni­cal cul­tur­al prop­er­ty in mu­se­um col­lec­tions.

To the pub­li­ca­tion: https://doi.org/10.25366/2022.33
In­for­ma­tion on the fund­ed project

Deutsches Optisches Museum
Provenance research on technical cultural property at the Deutsches Optisches Museum. Dr. Sören Groß conducts an object autopsy on a wooden peep-box acquired in 1936 (Inv. No. 8736100037154).