LWL Museum restitutes two heraldic cushions

Further objects from the former art collection of Emma Budge returned to her heirs.

28. May 2026

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German Lost Art Foundation

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German Lost Art Foundation Berlin Branch Office

Seydelstr. 18
10117 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 391 727 763 0
E-mail: kontakt@kulturgutverluste.de

The Help Desk offers advice and assistance to victims of the Nazi regime and their descendants on questions relating to Nazi theft of cultural property. Serving as a central and initial low-threshold point of contact in Germany, it is aimed in particular at people whose place of residence is outside Germany and who are unfamiliar with German procedures, especially in connection with cultural federalism. The Help Desk seeks to provide support in taking initial steps as well as providing further contacts and information. We will also be happy to help initiate discussions with museums and other institutions.

German Lost Art Foundation, Branch Office
Dr. Susanne Meyer-Abich
Head of Help Desk

Seydelstr. 18
10117 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 30 2338493 85
E-mail: helpdesk@kulturgutverluste.de

German Lost Art Foundation, provenance researcher Marlene Knut identified the two cushions as Nazi-looted property.

The LWL Museum is systematically reviewing its collections for cultural property confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution. Between 1933 and 1998, the museum acquired nearly 600 applied arts objects whose provenance was either unknown or considered questionable at the outset of the project, including furniture, textiles and objects made of earthenware, porcelain and glass.

Knut’s research established that the two heraldic cushions originated from the collection of Emma Budge (1852–1937) and her husband Henry (1840–1928), a Jewish couple from Hamburg. Following Emma Budge’s death, the executors of her estate decided to auction the valuable art collection because of the increasing threat posed by the Nazi regime to the Jewish beneficiaries of the estate. Contrary to the Budges’ wishes, however, the proceeds were transferred to a blocked account and never reached the heirs.

Alongside a number of other art museums, Westphalian State Museum – the predecessor institution of today’s LWL Museum – acquired two objects at the auction held in October 1937, namely the two heraldic cushions. Heraldic cushions bore the coats of arms of ancestors and served as evidence of their owners’ lineage. At the time these textiles were created, around 1612 and 1620, such cushions were popular wedding gifts.

Background

Numerous German museums have returned objects from the former Budge collection to the community of Emma Budge’s heirs in recent years. The LWL Museum has likewise reached an agreement with the heirs, and 89 years after they were taken under Nazi rule, the two heraldic cushions have now been returned to their rightful owners.

Despite numerous restitutions, most of the art collection auctioned in Berlin at the end of 1937 remains missing to this day. With the consent of the heirs, the cushions were displayed at the LWL Museum for one month before being returned in order to draw attention to their provenance.

The project previously resulted in a restitution in 2024, when eight chairs, a longcase clock, a painting and a lithograph were returned to the Masonic Lodge Zu den drei Balken in Münster. A total of sixteen objects from the museum’s collection have been restituted to their rightful owners since 2000.

Key findings from this and earlier provenance research projects, together with the publication Eine Frage der Herkunft. Geschichte(n) hinter den Bildern can be viewed on the museum’s online collection portal.

To the project: Provenance research in the collections of applied arts. The Acquisitions 1933-1998. (October 2023 to December 2025)