Provenance Research on non-European objects of the Art collection of Herbert M. Gutmann, Berlin/Potsdam

Herbert Max Magnus Gutmann was born in Dresden on October 15, 1879. His father Eugen founded the Dresdner Bank AG in 1872. Herbert M. Gutmann was a member of the board of the Dresdner Bank and chairman of the board of the Deutsche Orientbank until 1931. As a connoisseur, he collected Rococo art, Islamic art, East Asian objects and porcelain. Herbert Gutmann was persecuted as a Jew from 1933 on, and had to auction his art collection at the Berlin auction house Paul Graupe in 1934. This auction can be characterized as forced sale or sale under duress.

The one-year research project aims to identify the non-European objects of the Gutmann collection and to determine their whereabouts. Up to now, only little information is available about these 327 objects Mostly the object data are based on entries in exhibition catalogs and in Graupe's auction catalog. Due to later re-dating and altered attributions in the case of the predominantly three-dimensional objects, they have been difficult to identify to date. Archival research, especially in correspondence between scholars and curators, museums, and art dealers, will be used to determine the circumstances of acquisition and the whereabouts of the non-European objects, and to document their descriptions. The research will also locate the objects and identify their owners after 1934. As a result of the research project, the 327 Lost Art entries will be completed and an article on the archival records on the non-European objects will be published. The Museum of Asian Art, the Museum of Islamic Art, and the Central Archive of the National Museums in Berlin Prussian Cultural Heritage (SMB) are collaborators of the project. These institutions will provide expert support and advice in research design as well as in evaluation and classification of objects.

(c) Facts & Files.