The Saxony-Anhalt Arts Foundation restituted the drawing Bauarbeiten [“Construction Work”] by Adolph von Menzel from Max Liebermann’s former private art collection. By way of a just and fair solution, the Foundation subsequently purchased the work. This was preceded by extensive provenance research and a recommendation issued by the “Advisory Commission on the return of cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution, especially Jewish property”.
The art museum Kunstmuseum Moritzburg Halle (Saale) received a proposal from the heirs of Max and Martha Liebermann in 2020 to find a just and fair solution for the 1875 drawing Bauarbeiten [“Construction Work”] (also Maurer beim Bau [“Construction Worker”]) by Adolph von Menzel (1815-1905) in accordance with the principles of the Washington Declaration of 1998.
Extensive investigation of the drawing’s provenance was carried out by external provenance researchers and museum staff from 2009 onwards. The drawing was acquired by Galerie Commeter in Hamburg for the Halle art museum in March 1936. It was also possible to establish that the drawing was demonstrably in the possession of Max Liebermann (1847-1935) from 1916 to 1932: the last evidence to date is a 1932 photo showing the 85-year-old Max Liebermann sitting on a sofa in the parlour of his villa by Lake Wannsee – on the wall behind him, alongside other Menzel drawings, is the work Bauarbeiter [“Construction Worker”].
It was not possible to clarify whether the drawing had been sold by the artist himself between 1932 and February 1933, i.e. before the National Socialists came to power and while the artist was still alive, or whether it had been sold to a third party by the artist or his widow Martha (1857-1943) prior to the enactment of the so-called Nuremberg Race Laws in September 1935, and therefore not as a result of Nazi persecution. Since the archives of Galerie Commeter in Hamburg were destroyed during the Second World War, there is no way of establishing on whose behalf the gallery sold the drawing to the Halle art museum in 1936.
Following the completion of the research and in view of the fact that it is not possible to close the provenance gap between 1932 and the sale to Kunstmuseum Moritzburg Halle (Saale) in 1936, the Board of Trustees of the Saxony-Anhalt Arts Foundation authorised the Foundation’s Executive Board in 2021 to request the “Advisory Commission in connection with the restitution of cultural assets seized as a result of Nazi persecution, in particular from Jewish ownership” to issue a recommendation on the question of whether the work of art should be returned to the heirs of Martha Liebermann. The appeal was lodged with the Advisory Commission because it is the statutory mandate of the Saxony-Anhalt Arts Foundation to ensure long-term preservation and maintenance of its assets, and it administers Kunstmuseum Moritzburg Halle (Saale) on a fiduciary basis.
Published on 29 February 2024, the Advisory Commission’s recommendation was that the drawing should be restituted to the claimants because it is an item of cultural property that was seized as a result of Nazi persecution:
https://www.beratende-kommission.de/en/recommendations
Following this recommendation, the Saxony-Anhalt Arts Foundation held talks with the heirs to arrive at a just and fair solution, as a result of which the Menzel drawing was restituted in 2024 and then purchased by the Foundation.
The Impressionist Max Liebermann was one of the leading German artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and an influential artistic figure of his age, having been President of the Berlin Secession and President of the Prussian Academy of Arts (1920-1932).
As a Jewish citizen, the painter became a target of National Socialist and ethnic-chauvinist circles even before 1933: he resigned his honorary presidency of the Prussian Academy of Arts after the National Socialists came to power and lived in seclusion with his wife Martha until his death on 8 February 1935. Unlike their daughter and granddaughter, Martha Liebermann was not able to flee to escape the systematic marginalisation of Jews and antisemitic terror perpetrated by the National Socialists. After escaping deportation to the Theresienstadt concentration camp by committing suicide, Martha Liebermann died at the Jewish Hospital in Berlin in March 1943.