Hanover returns antique jug to Greece

Belit Onay, Mayor of Hanover, restituted an early Corinthian jug from the collection of the August Kestner Museum to the Hellenic Republic, handing it over to the Consul General of Greece, Ioannis Vikelidis. Research previously revealed that the early Corinthian jug is to be regarded as war booty taken by a German military geologist in occupied Greece during the Second World War. Before Onay and Vikelidis signed the official restitution agreement, the mayor recalled the city’s voluntary commitment: “We will continue to press ahead with our research into our city’s Nazi past and intensely pursue our restitution efforts!”

Background:

Dr habil. Hannfrit Putzer worked from 15 May to 30 November 1943 as a technical war administrator and military geologist at the Wehrmacht unit Festungs-Pionier-Kommandantur II, as an SS-Obersturmführer in the Reichsführung SS, and in Greece as a geologist who held a post-doctoral teaching qualification from the Reich University of Strasbourg. He carried out geological surveys and drilling operations, mainly in the Peloponnese, in Attica, and on the islands of Aegina, Kythira, Zakynthos and Kefalonia. It is likely that he found the jug while drilling for water on the Isthmus of Corinth on 21 September 1943. In any case, the jug was examined and dated by the German archaeologist Prof. Dr. Gabriel Welter, who worked for the Wehrmacht. At the beginning of December 1943, Putzer took it out of the country to his apartment in Strasbourg-Königshofen.

This theft of an ancient cultural asset in Greece was a breach of international law in force at the time, too. The “Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land”, which was signed by both the German Empire and the Hellenic Kingdom in The Hague on 18 October 1907, expressly prohibited “all seizure” of “historic monuments or works of art” (Article 56). In accordance with § 7 of the “Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art” of 3 December 1998, the City of Hanover first encouraged the Directorate General for the Ancient Cultural Property and Heritage of Greece to lay claim to this work of art on 13 September 2021. After interest was expressed, the state capital initiated in-depth provenance research into the object.