New exhibition in Dessau

Anhalt Picture Gallery is dedicating an exhibition entitled Sammlungs(ge)schichten [Collection (His)tories] to the development of its holdings – and presenting the results of a provenance research project.

5. December 2025

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German Lost Art Foundation

Humboldtstr. 12
39112 Magdeburg
Germany
Phone:  +49 (0) 391 727 763 0
E-mail:  kontakt@kulturgutverluste.de
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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

This winter, Anhalt Picture Gallery is offering insights into the history of its collection and the many stories surrounding the collections and collectors to whom it owes its precious holdings of items spanning the Middle Ages through to the modern period. The special exhibition Sammlungs(ge)schichten [Collection (His)tories] will be on display in the Orangery at the Georgium in Dessau from 3 December 2025 to 2 March 2026.

The Dessau gallery came into being through the merging of several much older collections, most of which date back to the art-loving members of the House of Ascania, the dynasty that ruled the Duchy of Anhalt until 1918. Many paintings of the Dutch Golden Age found their way into this small central German state as a result of a marriage alliance with the House of Orange.

The selected works from six centuries not only highlight periods of princely passion for the arts but reflect the political upheavals of the 20th century. The Picture Gallery maintained close links with the Bauhaus in Dessau and was hard hit by the National Socialists’ “Degenerate Art” campaign. It lost works through theft during wartime evacuation and was later expanded with the addition of confiscated works of art acquired during the so-called land reform in the Soviet Occupation Zone. A provenance research project funded by the German Lost Art Foundation since 2023 is examining the extent to which the collection contains works seized as a result of Nazi persecution. Part of the exhibition features the findings of this project.

While the exhibition Sammlungs(ge)schichten is on display it will replace the permanent exhibition at Schloss Georgium, which will be closed for these three months. As in the Georgium, major works belonging to the museum – from Lucas Cranach to Wassily Kandinsky – will be shown in the Orangery. But in addition, works of art that are usually kept in storage will also be displayed, including large-format 20th-century canvases by Paul Riess, Georg Lührig and Carl Marx, as well as works on paper by Albrecht Dürer, Francisco de Goya and Paul Klee, which can only be exhibited for limited periods.

Information on the funded project: Provenienzforschung in der Anhaltischen Gemäldegalerie Dessau: Zugänge in der Gemäldesammlung 1933–1945 [Provenance research at Anhalt Picture Gallery Dessau: acquisitions for the painting collection 1933–1945]

To the exhibition: Sammlungs(ge)schichten in der Anhaltischen Gemäldegalerie Dessau