Highly productive provenance research in Saxony-Anhalt

The museum association Museumsverband Sachsen-Anhalt e. V. presents its latest outcomes on the occasion of this year’s International Provenance Research Day (10 April): a guide, the findings yielded by a first check in connection with colonial contexts at Aschersleben Museum, Halberstadt Municipal Museum and Wolmirstedt Museum, a project website launched by Museum Schloss Moritzburg Zeitz, insights into basic research being done on cultural property expropriations in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the GDR at Halberstadt Municipal Museum, and an interim status report on research being carried out at Altmärkisches Museum Stendal.

The Provenance Research Coordination Centre has formed part of Museumsverband Sachsen-Anhalt e. V. since 2019, advising museums on all three contexts of injustice – colonial contexts, Nazi-looted property and the expropriation of cultural property in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the GDR. The Coordination Centre has already initiated a total of eleven provenance research projects, six of which have been or are being implemented by the museum association itself. The outcomes of these projects will be featured at five presentations:

based on the first checks carried out in recent years, the museum associations of Brandenburg, Hesse and Saxony-Anhalt have compiled a report on the experience gained in the course of the project, as well as producing a practical guide. The latter is aimed at museum associations and authorities, participating museums and provenance researchers. The publication Erstcheck Provenienzforschung. Eine Handreichung für die Praxis (Saskia Johann, Annette Müller-Spreitz, Alexander Sachse, published by Museumsverband des Landes Brandenburg e.V., Museumsverband Hessen e.V. and Museumsverband Sachsen-Anhalt e.V.), saw its online launch on 9 April 2024. This publication is now available digitally here: https://www.mv-sachsen-anhalt.de/download/Handreichung_Erstcheck_Johann_Mueller-Spreitz_Sachse_2024.pdf

The findings yielded by the “First Check – Colonial Contexts” carried out at Aschersleben Museum, Halberstadt Municipal Museum and Wolmirstedt Museum will be presented to the public by the three museum directors in three talks to be given at Aschersleben Museum on 10 April 2024.

From 10 April 2024, Museum Schloss Moritzburg Zeitz presents a website on its own on-site provenance research highlighting acquisitions for the Zeitz museum’s graphic art collection in the years after 1945 from art dealers in Halle and Quedlinburg. See https://museum-moritzburg-zeitz.de/ for details.

In July 2023, a project was launched at Halberstadt Municipal Museum entitled Arbeit und Einfluss der Fachstelle für Heimatmuseen insbesondere unter Heinz Arno Knorr bei der Bestandsbildung, Bestandsdokumentation und Bestandsprofilierung musealer Sammlungen in der SBZ/DDR im Gebiet des heutigen Landes Sachsen-Anhalt [Work and influence of the Centre for Local History Museums, especially under Heinz Arno Knorr, in the creation, documentation and profiling of museum collections in the Soviet Occupation Zone/GDR in the area of today’s state of Saxony-Anhalt] (abbreviated title: the Knorr Project, funded by the German Lost Art Foundation). At the talk on 13 April 2024 at Halberstadt Municipal Museum, the two project team members will provide insights into items of property originally owned by Halberstadt “defectors” which ended up at Halberstadt Municipal Museum.

Provenance research at Altmärkisches Museum Stendal has been ongoing for around a year. The interim status is that some 20 items and books have been identified that found their way to the museum in the 1930s as a result of injustice committed by the Nazi regime. The majority of these items originate from the former Stendal Masonic Lodge Zur Goldenen Krone, so there will be a talk on its history by Corrie Leitz, research assistant at Museumsverband Sachsen-Anhalt e. V., at Musikforum Katharinenkirche on 25 April 2024.

Provenance research at Saxony-Anhalt’s museums currently takes the form of five projects funded by the German Lost Art Foundation:

• Verdachtsmomente klären – vertiefende Provenienzforschung im Altmärkischen Museum Stendal und Danneil-Museum Salzwedel

• Provenance Research in the Museum Schloss Moritzburg Zeitz in the Graphic Arts Collection

• Provenienzforschung in der Anhaltischen Gemäldegalerie Dessau: Zugänge in der Gemäldesammlung 1933–1945
• Arbeit und Einfluss der Fachstelle für Heimatmuseen insbesondere unter Heinz Arno Knorr bei der Bestandsbildung, Bestandsdokumentation und Bestandsprofilierung musealer Sammlungen in der SBZ/DDR im Gebiet des heutigen Landes Sachsen-Anhalt
• Die aus Borneo stammenden Objekte in der Kunst- und Naturalienkammer der Franckeschen Stiftungen