Scientific research into the provenance of a stock comprising 13 paintings in the art collection of the Sächsisches Weinbaumuseum Hoflößnitz

The Sächsisches Weinbaumuseum Hoflößnitz (Hoflößnitz museum of Saxon viticulture) has a stock of 13 paintings consisting of portraits of 17th century royal figures and dignitaries. First inventoried in 1960, all that was known about its provenance was that a section of it came into the collection of the former municipal museum in September 1940. The possibility that these were looted artworks could not be ruled out with absolute certainty, so the museum directors decided to commission an interdisciplinary investigation into the origin of the paintings. Funding from the Bureau for Provenance Research made it possible for investigations to be carried out by two art historians and a restorer in 20112012.

An in-depth analysis of sources revealed that the 13 paintings had evidently been part of a larger collection which had hung in the interior of the prestigious rooms of Stolpen Castle in the 17th and early 18th centuries. As the examination by the restorer showed, 10 of the paintings are copies of well-known originals made at the time. Only the Saxon Electors Christian II and Johann Georg I could have commissioned these.

After the paintings were removed from the rooms of Stolpen Castle in 1716, some of them later entered the collection of the Königlich Sächsischer Altertumsverein, in whose museum in the Grand Garden Palace in Dresden they were occasionally exhibited. Of the 13 paintings examined, 12 clearly have old shelf marks from the Altertumsvereins collection. Six of the paintings were transferred to Hoflößnitz museum in 1940 as loans. The date of consignment (obviously before 1945) cannot be determined precisely for the remaining works. As a result of the extensively documented investigationwhich also provided valuable information on the creation period and origin, on the individuals portrayed and on the condition of the paintings, among other thingsno evidence of any suspicious provenance came to light.

(c) Stiftung Weinbaumuseum Hoflößnitz