Nazi-looted cultural property

Stiftung Hamburger Kunstsammlungen and Hamburger Kunsthalle jointly research the origin of 45 works of art

On June 1, 2021, the Stiftung Hamburger Kunstsammlungen began working together with the Hamburger Kunsthalle to clarify the provenance of 45 works of art that, even after intensive provenance research, still show gaps in their provenance with regard to possible Nazi-looted art and are, therefore, to be classified as questionable.

The works in ques­tion were ac­quired by the foun­da­tion and are on per­ma­nent loan to the Kun­sthalle ex­hi­bi­tion venue. Since 1956, the foun­da­tion Stiftung Ham­burg­er Kun­st­samm­lun­gen has sup­port­ed the col­lec­tion main­tained by the Kun­sthalle by pur­chas­ing works of art. With the prove­nance re­search project, which is fund­ed by the Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion, the foun­da­tion is tak­ing re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the ori­gin of the works in its pos­ses­sion.
The re­search project marks the be­gin­ning of a mul­ti-year pro­cess of in­ves­ti­gat­ing the prove­nance of works that the foun­da­tion has ac­quired for Ham­burg’s cul­tur­al land­scape, in­clud­ing the Mu­se­um für Kun­st und Gewerbe.
Project de­scrip­tion