News

We report on the latest developments in provenance research and on projects funded by the Foundation, as well as offering details of important new publications, exhibitions and conferences and reporting on restitutions. Feel free to send in interesting news relating to the field of provenance research to presse@kulturgutverluste.de

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Provenance researcher Sebastian Braun handing over two books to Marc Grünbaum, head of the Frankfurt Jewish Community’s Department of Culture
Jüdisches Museum Westfalen

Jewish Museum of Westphalia publishes brochure on provenance research project

The Jü­di­sches Mu­se­um West­fa­len (Je­wish Mu­se­um of West­pha­lia) has pu­blis­hed a bro­chu­re on its pro­ve­nance re­se­arch pro­ject, which has be­en fun­ded by the Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­ti­on sin­ce May 2020 and is now com­ple­te. 60 pa­ges in length, the bro­chu­re pres­ents the re­sults of one and a half years of schol­ar­ly work.
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Nazi-looted cultural property

The German Lost Art Foundation hosts talks with descendants of Jewish art collectors

This summer, the German Lost Art Foundation is organising a three-part series of talks with descendants of Jewish art collectors. In this way, the Foundation is continuing a format that it started in connection with the anniversary year #2021JLID – Jüdisches Leben in Deutschland (“#2021JLID – Jewish Life in Germany”) in 2021.
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The foundation Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha has decided not to show the skulls themselves but rather focus on the empty spaces they leave behind.
Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein Gotha / Robert Niemz
Colonial contexts

Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein Gotha completes project to establish the provenance of 41 skulls from Indonesia

The foun­da­tion Stiftung Schloss Frieden­stein Gotha has in­ves­ti­gat­ed the prove­nance of a to­tal of 41 hu­man skulls that were added to the ducal col­lec­tion dur­ing the colo­nial pe­ri­od. The project Prove­nance and His­to­ry of the Col­lec­tion of In­done­sian Skulls at Stiftung Schloss Frieden­stein Gotha was fund­ed by the Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion. On the In­done­sian side, the re­search was spon­sored by the In­sti­tute for Dayak Stud­ies-21 in Palang­ka Raya, south­ern Bor­neo.
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Colonial contexts

German Lost Art Foundation supports project on works from Benin at the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt am Main

The Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion is fund­ing a six-month re­search project on works from the King­dom of Benin (Nige­ria) which are part of the col­lec­tion at the Weltkul­turen Mu­se­um (Mu­se­um of World Cul­tures) in Frank­furt. The aim of the project is to in­ves­ti­gate the prove­nance of these ob­jects in more de­tail and to re­con­struct the cir­cum­stances of their ac­qui­si­tion. In par­tic­u­lar, an at­tempt is be­ing made to clar­i­fy whether any of the ob­jects – and if so which ones – ar­rived in Eu­rope as a re­sult of the British “puni­tive ex­pe­di­tion" in 1897, even­tu­al­ly end­ing up at what was then the Völk­er­mu­se­um.
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Nazi-looted cultural property

Exhibition on the search for cultural property expropriated as a result of National Socialist persecution in the special collections at Hamburg State and University Library

To­day, 19 Ju­ly, the Ham­burg State and Uni­ver­si­ty Li­brary opens its ex­hi­bi­tion Sehr er­freuliche Ver­mehrun­gen (“Very Grat­i­fy­ing Ad­di­tions”) on the search for cul­tur­al prop­er­ty ex­pro­pri­at­ed as a re­sult of Na­tion­al So­cial­ist per­se­cu­tion in the spe­cial col­lec­tions at Ham­burg State and Uni­ver­si­ty Li­brary.
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Colonial contexts

Exhibition in Gießen "Zwischen Sammelwut & Forschungsdrang. Koloniale Kontexte in Gießen"

The spe­cial ex­hi­bi­tion Zwis­chen Sam­mel­wut & Forschungs­drang. Kolo­niale Kon­texte in Gießen (“Be­tween col­lec­tion ma­nia and the urge to re­search. Colo­nial Con­texts in Gießen”) at Ober­hes­sis­ches Mu­se­um Gießen pro­vides in­sight in­to the project Prove­nances of Ethno­graph­ic Ob­jects from Colo­nial Con­texts in Cen­tral Hesse fund­ed by the Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion.
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Soviet zone / GDR

German Lost Art Foundation supports the SKD project on cultural property losses during the GDR era

The Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion is fund­ing a ba­sic re­search project that was launched in June 2022 at the Staatliche Kun­st­samm­lun­gen Dres­den (Dres­den State Art Col­lec­tions) (SKD). The SKD are in­ves­ti­gat­ing the mu­se­um as­so­ci­a­tion’s re­la­tions with for­eign trade com­pa­nies in the GDR.
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Nazi-looted cultural property

Sources from the art dealership Julius Böhler now accessible online via the database Böhler re:search

The database Böh­ler re:search – the dig­i­tal edi­tion of the archive of Mu­nich art deal­er­ship Julius Böh­ler – can now be ac­cessed on­line free of charge.
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Colonial contexts

New guide on dealing with human remains from colonial contexts

Many museums and universities hold skulls, skeletal parts and bones that were added to German collections during the colonial period. The appropriate handling of this sensitive material has been the subject of intense debate for some time. The origin of such human remains is often unclear, as they were usually excavated secretly, stolen or unfairly traded. The German Lost Art Foundation, the Berlin Medical History Museum of the Charité and ICOM Germany are now publishing a scholarly introduction to this topic in the form of a guide to interdisciplinary provenance research into human remains from colonial contexts. As a key factor in working with descendants, provenance research can and should lead to the repatriation and burial or reburial of human remains.
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Annalena Baerbock (Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs) and Claudia Roth (Minister of State for Culture) handing over two art objects to their Nigerian counterparts Minister of Culture Lai Mohammed and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Zubairo Dada.
BKM
Colonial contexts

German Lost Art Foundation welcomes imminent return of Benin bronzes to Nigeria

Gilbert Lupfer, Di­rec­tor of the Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion, says he wel­comes the planned re­turn of the Benin bronzes from Ger­many to Nige­ria: “This has the po­ten­tial to mark the be­gin­ning of a new era of how Ger­many deals with ev­i­dence of its bloody colo­nial past. Most im­por­tant­ly, the pro­ce­dure has been de­vel­oped joint­ly with the Nige­ri­an gov­ern­ment and nu­mer­ous stake­hold­ers in Nige­ria.”
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