Restitutions

The Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen are returning a painting by Friedrich von Amerling to the living heirs of Jacques Rosenthal. This restitution is the result of extensive provenance research and an important step towards addressing Nazi-looted art in museum collections.

ARTIST AND WORK
Friedrich von Amerling (1803–1887) is widely regarded as one of the most important Austrian painters of his time. After studying at the academies in Vienna and Prague, his subsequent stays in London and Paris proved formative for his art. Influenced above all by the naturalism of English painting, he developed a style of society portrait that managed to convey status while still being fresh and true to life, making him one of the most sought-after portrait painters of the Biedermeier period in Vienna. Later in his career, he devoted himself primarily to genre painting.

“Portrait of a Young Man” is an early work by Amerling and is notable for its immediacy and lifelike quality. Amerling scratched his signature and the date into the paint while it was still wet, using the handle of his brush. The inscription dates the painting to 28 August 1833. It depicts a young man dressed in a black coat, a white shirt with a high standing collar, and a cravat, in keeping with the fashion of the period.

PROVENANCE OF THE PAINTING AND THE RACIAL PERSECUTION OF THE ROSENTHAL FAMILY 
The painting had been owned by the renowned Munich antiquarian bookseller Jakob (Jacques) Rosenthal (1854–1937) since 1930. He and his elder brother Ludwig Rosenthal (1840–1928) ran art and antiquarian book businesses in Munich. Ludwig founded his firm, Antiquariat Rosenthal, in Fellheim and had been based in Munich since 1867. Jakob (Jacques) Rosenthal established Antiquariat Jacques Rosenthal on Karlstraße in 1895, later relocating to a palatial townhouse on Brienner Straße. The firm expanded to include branches in Berlin and Switzerland, gaining an international reputation for its rare manuscripts and incunabula. Jacques Rosenthal received numerous honours and held the title of purveyor to the Imperial, Royal Prussian, and Royal Bavarian courts. From the 1910s onwards, he was assisted by his son Erwin Rosenthal (1889–1981). 

After the Nazis seized power in 1933, Jacques Rosenthal’s business became a target of coordinated antisemitic state persecution. SA guards were stationed outside the main entrance to enforce the boycott of the firm. In August 1935, the Reich Chamber of Culture ordered the antiquarian book business to close within four weeks. To pre-empt a forced closure, the family decided to sell the business quickly. In December 1935, former employee Hans Koch (1897–1978) acquired the firm in a process described as “voluntary Aryanization”. While some family members went into exile, Jacques and his wife Emma Rosenthal remained in Munich. After selling their house in July 1935, they moved into the Hotel Regina. Their furnishings were sold, often at prices far below their true value.

SALE OF THE PAINTING AND ITS ACQUISITION BY THE BAYERISCHE STAATSGEMÄLDESAMMLUNGEN 
Jacques Rosenthal presumably delivered the Amerling painting to the Munich art dealership Julius Böhler in August or at some point during 1935. Böhler took the work on commission and presented it to the Pinakotheken for consideration on 26 February 1936. Later that year, the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen acquired the painting through an exchange transaction with Böhler. Alongside the Amerling painting, then Director-General Ernst Buchner acquired two Italian works, by Starnina and Crespi, for the Alte Pinakothek. In exchange, he transferred three Netherlandish paintings by Netscher, Isenbrant (or Ysenbrandt), and Ruysdael to Böhler’s art dealing firm. In October 1936, Böhler paid Emma Rosenthal 350 Reichsmarks for the painting, which Jacques Rosenthal had offered for sale through Galerie Heinemann for 2,500 Reichsmarks just a few years earlier, in 1930. At that time, it was identified as a portrait of the painter Moritz von Schwind; six years later, however, the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen acquired it as “Portrait of a Young Man”. This altered identification of the sitter, in addition to the family’s economic hardship and persecution, contributed to a substantial reduction in the painting’s value.

FATE OF THE ROSENTHAL FAMILY 
Jacques Rosenthal died on 5 October 1937, aged 83, at the Hotel Regina in Munich. His wife Emma remained there until she emigrated in December 1939, before dying in Switzerland in June 1941. Her emigration was accompanied by substantial financial burdens, including punitive levies and the Reich Flight Tax. Their son Erwin Rosenthal emigrated with his family, first to Florence and then to the United States, and thus survived the Holocaust.

A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH TO PROVENANCE RESEARCH 
This case highlights the importance of cooperation in the restitution of Nazi-looted art and Holocaust-era assets. The Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen were supported in their research by Franziska Eschenbach of the research project “Reconstruction of the Private Art Collection of Jacques, Emma and Erwin Rosenthal” at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich. By returning the Amerling painting, the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen are continuing their commitment to researching and restituting artworks lost as a result of state persecution by the National Socialist regime. This restitution represents a further step towards redressing historical injustices and advancing research into the history of Jewish collectors and art dealers.

STATEMENT BY ANTON BIEBL, DIRECTOR OF THE BAYERISCHE STAATSGEMÄLDESAMMLUNGEN 
“By returning this work of art, the Free State of Bavaria and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen acknowledge the persecution that the Rosenthal family endured. Their business suffered from the Nazi boycott, forcing them to close the Antiquariat Jacques Rosenthal on Brienner Straße at the end of 1935. Ultimately, they were compelled to flee the country. This restitution demonstrates the importance of close and constructive collaboration between the living heirs’ representatives and the wider restitution network.”

STATEMENT BY MARKUS BLUME, BAVARIAN MINISTER FOR THE ARTS 
“Confronting the past, enabling justice: even more than eight decades after the end of Nazi rule, addressing the injustices of that era remains an enduring responsibility. The restitution of the Amerling painting to the rightful heirs of Jacques Rosenthal is a firm expression of this responsibility. The history of the Rosenthal family powerfully illustrates how systematic exclusion and the deprivation of rights robbed people of their livelihoods, security, and future. Our aim is to clarify such cases, shine a light on historical injustices and find fair solutions. We have achieved this thanks to dedicated provenance research. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to uncovering the facts of this case. Their work is indispensable in fostering an active culture of remembrance that lives on in the present.”

STATEMENT BY LIVING HEIRS OF JACQUES AND EMMA ROSENTHAL
“For the past 25 years, the City of Munich’s engagement with the Rosenthal family’s legacy, through both archival work and art-historical research, has brought together scholarship and expertise to exemplary effect. This ongoing work draws on the past to inform the present and the future.”

The Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen are returning the painting “Interior with Children (The Siblings)” (German title: “Interieur mit Kindern [Die Geschwister]”) by the Jewish painter Lesser Ury (1861–1931) to the rightful heirs of the Berlin banker and art collector Dr Curt Goldschmidt (1878–1947). The work is of particular historical significance:

PROVENANCE AND COLLECTORS
The first known owner of the painting was Julius Elias (1861–1927), a Berlin art historian, publicist, and collector who was already in possession of the work by 1905. An important patron of modern art, Elias supported, among others, artists of the Berlin Secession. By 1921 at the latest, the painting had entered the collection of Berlin banker Curt Goldschmidt. In 1910 Goldschmidt joined the Berlin “Gesellschaft der Freunde”, a network of the city’s economic elite that was also engaged in charitable activities, and he served on its board from 1921 to 1934. He also held numerous honorary positions and was awarded the Cross of Honour for Frontline Fighters in 1935.

The painting “Interior with Children (The Siblings)” is a noteworthy testament to the history of Jewish art making and collecting in the early twentieth century. Its provenance history brings together the artistic work of the Jewish painter Lesser Ury and the collecting activities of two Jewish figures from Berlin’s cultural life.

THE ARTIST LESSER URY
Born Leiser Leo Ury in Poland, Lesser Ury is renowned as a chronicler of Berlin street and café scenes. He also created striking landscapes characterised by evening atmospheres and evocative skies. The present painting is an early work and was produced during his close study of Dutch painting traditions. It is distinguished by the atmospheric effect of light entering the interior and shaping the scene of the three siblings.

CURT GOLDSCHMIDT AND HIS COLLECTION
The painting is now being restituted to Curt Goldschmidt’s descendants. Goldschmidt was a partner and later owner of the Berlin banking house Joseph Goldschmidt & Co., which was founded by his father in 1900. A doctor of law and banker, Goldschmidt was a prominent figure in Berlin’s economic and social life. He maintained close ties to the art world and was portrayed by Max Liebermann. The family lived on Stülerstraße in Berlin’s Tiergarten district, and in addition to their apartment in the city, they owned a country estate in Kötzschenbroda, between Meissen and Dresden.

LOSS AND POLITICAL PERSECUTION DURING THE NAZI ERA
In the early 1930s, the Goldschmidt banking house came under increasing economic and political pressure. Following the Nazi seizure of power, the situation for Jewish entrepreneurs and bankers deteriorated dramatically. Ultimately, antisemitic measures and political interference resulted in the loss of both Goldschmidt’s business and private assets. On 23 September 1935, bankruptcy proceedings were opened and a bankruptcy trustee was appointed to administer Curt Goldschmidt’s estate. As a result of these proceedings, the family was forced to vacate their prestigious apartment on Stülerstraße. In November 1935, the trustee ordered that the entire household inventory be auctioned off. Among the approximately 350 lots was Lesser Ury’s painting “Interior with Children (The Siblings)”, estimated at 800 Reichsmarks. However, it is unclear whether the painting was sold and, if so, who acquired it. The proceeds from the auction did not benefit Curt Goldschmidt but were instead transferred to state authorities as part of the liquidation of assets.

After a gap in the record regarding the chain of ownership, the work resurfaces at the Lempertz auction house in Cologne in 1940. In the catalogue, it was marked with a star to indicate that it originated from “non-Aryan property”. It was sold for 220 Reichsmarks, though neither the consignor nor the buyer is known.

THE ACQUISITION IN 1972
In 1972, the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen acquired the painting via the Munich gallery Neumeister from the collection of the art dealer Rudolf Neumeister, who had owned the work since at least 1969. The circumstances of Neumeister’s acquisition of the painting remain unclear.

PROVENANCE RESEARCH ENABLES RESTITUTION
Provenance research by the Staatliche Museumsagentur Bayern (Bavarian Museum Agency) has established that Curt Goldschmidt lost possession of the work as a result of political and racial persecution by the Nazis. Goldschmidt himself fled to Paris in 1937 and lived in hiding for much of the German occupation. He lost all his assets and subsequently died in Paris on 31 March 1947.

ANTON BIEBL ON THE RESTITUTION
“Lesser Ury is associated with the “Jewish Renaissance” in Germany, which Martin Buber understood not as a “return”, but truly as a “rebirth” of an immanent Jewish culture. The restitution of “Interior with Children (The Siblings)” marks the return of a work that is not only an important example of Lesser Ury’s art, but also reflects the history of Jewish collectors and patronage in Berlin in the early decades of the last century. This restitution acknowledges the painting’s dual Jewish provenance, from its creator through its collectors to its loss as a result of Nazi persecution.”

REPRESENTATIVE OF THE HEIRS
“The family of Curt Goldschmidt is pleased to accept the return of the painting by Lesser Ury which was acquired by their great-grandfather by 1921. We acknowledge the efforts of the Bavarian State Museums and the Bavarian Government to confirm that Curt Goldschmidt owned and subsequently lost ownership of the Ury painting during the Nazi regime. More generally we acknowledge the commitment of democratic Germany to face its Nazi past and contribute to a peaceful Europe and world. We are the grandchildren and great grandchildren of Curt Goldschmidt.  We have lived mostly in France, Great Britain and the United States. Our family history has taught us to share values of tolerance and respect among people and countries.”  

WORK RETURNED AFTER RE-EXAMINATION ON THE BASIS OF NEW ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

RESTITUTION OF A PAINTING BY AN ARTIST FROM THE CIRCLE OF LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER 
The Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen are returning the painting The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, c. 1522–1525, attributed to an artist from the circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder to the legal heirs of Ernst Magnus, formerly of Hannover.

The small-format painting was consigned to the Fischer Galerie auction house in Lucerne by Ernst Magnus in 1940 and sold to Hermann Göring in 1941 through the art dealer Walter Andreas Hofer. After the Second World War, the work was recovered by the American Allies, processed at the Central Collecting Point and initially entrusted to the Minister-President of the Free State of Bavaria. In 1961, it was transferred to the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen as state property relocated from former Nazi holdings.

The descendants of Ernst Magnus submitted a restitution claim in 2009, which  - following review in 2010 - was rejected on the basis of the guidelines in force at the time.
After a renewed examination under the new assessment framework of the Arbitration Board  for Nazi-Looted Property, which guides the review and  decision-making process  for cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution, the decision was revised and restitution has now been approved.

The Bavarian minister of the Arts Markus Blume:
‘I am pleased that the clearly defined and expanded criteria of the new assessment framework for Nazi-looted art establish the legal prerequisites for the restitution of the painting The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne to the heirs of Ernst Magnus. With the launch of the arbitration court, a new era in the restitution of Nazi-looted art has begun – one that extends far beyond formal legal proceedings. The assessment framework concretizes the Washington Principles and provides reliable guidelines. This is an important step forward towards a contemporary restitution practice. For the first time, previously unresolved areas such as dealer stock, sales abroad, and assets sold by refugees (‘flight assets’) are being addressed. The guiding principle is: there is no rule without exception – only in this way can each case be considered individually on its own merits. For museums in Bavaria and across Germany, this creates the opportunity to re-examine complex issues and base decisions on a broader, more sustainable foundation.’  

 Anton Biebl, Director of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen:
‘The decision to return the work to the lawful heirs of Ernst Magnus sends a clear signal of our commitment to continually advancing the museum’s restitution policy. We owe a moral responsibility to the victims of Nazi injustice and their descendants to bring their stories to light and seek fair and just solutions.’

Hannah Cavendish-Palmer, great granddaughter of Ernst Magnus:
‘Thank you to the people of Germany for being willing to listen, remember, and recognize the tragic persecution of my family members and so many others, whose lives were destroyed by the Nazis. Thank you to the Bavarian State Museums for hearing that call and returning the painting. I implore German institutions to continue returning stolen works.’

BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND OF THE MAGNUS FAMILY
Ernst Magnus (1871–1942) and his wife Ida were originally from Hesse and lived in Hannover for many years. Magnus was director of the Commerz- und Disconto-Bank Hannover, a member of the board of the stock exchange and, from 1914 to 1933, served on the supervisory board of Continental Gummi-Werke AG. Advised by an assistant of the eminent art historian Wilhelm von Bode, Magnus and his wife amassed a substantial art collection.

With the rise of the Nazi regime, members of the Magnus family were increasingly stripped of their rights as citizens. Bank accounts were frozen, divested property was sold below market value, and they were forced to pay the Jewish Property Levy and the Reich Flight Tax. In 1935, Ernst Magnus escaped Nazi persecution by emigrating to Lausanne, taking parts of his collection and valuable furnishings with him. However, to fund the family’s escape and pay for the visa application for Cuba, Magnus was forced to sell further works of art, among them The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. In 1941, as Swiss asylum regulations tightened, the family managed to leave Switzerland via Seville for Havana, where Ernst Magnus died on 12 February 1942, just a few months after his arrival. His wife and daughter were subsequently able to make their way to the United States.

THE CHALLENGES OF PROVENANCE RESEARCH
The investigation into the paintings’ provenance highlights the challenges involved in assessing what is known as Fluchtgut (flight assets). Art sales in Switzerland during the Nazi era are often difficult to classify: although, they formally took place under free-market conditions, many were nevertheless prompted by the existential pressures of a racial persecution just across the German border. The new assessment criteria adopted in 2024 allow for a more nuanced evaluation. They play greater emphasis on the economic hardships faced by emigrants as a result of persecution and acknowledge that forced sales could also occur outside the territory of the German Reich.

For the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen and the researchers at the newly established Department of Provenance Research at the Bavarian Museum Agency, this means re-evaluating cases such as that of Ernst Magnus after more than a decade later, and critically reassessing decisions taken many years ago. At the same time, it obliges us to expand our provenance research efforts, allocate the necessary resources, and communicate our findings with complete transparency. The restitution of the painting The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne is thus also a sign that the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen are taking responsibility, and that we are committed to the ongoing effort to address historical injustices and the restitution of cultural property confiscated by the Nazis or sold under duress.

The Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen returned the work ‘The Vision of St. Bernard’ by Johannes Koerbecke to the heirs of Ellen Funke. The work was first listed on the Lost Art Database in 2020 (ID 592322).

Historical background to the collection an the persecution of Ellen Funke 

Helene Sophie Victoria Hermine Heintzmann, known as Ellen Funke (1869–1947) of Hamm, was the beneficiary to artworks from the ‘Loeb’sche Fideikommiss’, a major private collection that dated back to the 19^th century. Due to her maternal ancestors’ Jewish origins, she was classified as a ‘Mischling of the first degree’ under Nazi rule and was, therefore, subject to systematic persecution. The collection was originally assembled by Alexander Haindorf, a Jewish physician and co-founder of the Westfälischer Kunstverein, on the Caldenhof estate near Hamm, together with his daughter Sophie and her husband Jakob Loeb.

The fideicommissum had been dissolved by 1936, by which time the collection was divided among those descendants entitled to inherit who, as Jews or so-called ‘half-Jews’, subsequently faced persecution. Ellen Funke was one of these entitled persons. Her collection comprised 101 works of art, including ‘The Vision of St. Bernard’ by Johannes Koerbecke. In 1936, she sold the work to the ‘Galerie Stern’ in Düsseldorf, evidently in order to obtain the financial means needed for permanent residency in a safe foreign country and to support other members of her family. As such, irrefutable evidence exists to support the supposition that the painting would not have been sold had the Nazis not been in power and that the loss of the painting was as a result of persecution. Ellen Funke is the primary victim; as a consequence, and in accordance with the internationally recognised interpretation of the Washington Principles, restitution is to be made in the first instance to her legal successors.

Division of the painting and aquisition by two museums 

The work was conceived as a panel painting with images on both sides. The Annunciation was on the front and the Vision of St. Bernard on the back. The art dealer Max Stern divided the panel to create two separate paintings so that they could be sold as independent works. The depiction of St. Bernard on the back was listed in a 1937 catalogue of the P. de Boer art dealership in Amsterdam and acquired by the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in July/August 1938.

 The work was acquired as part of an exchange transaction: in 1938, the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen handed over a work from their collection – Jan van Goyen’s ‘Wasserlandschaft’ (River Landscape; formerly inv. no. 2015) – to the Amsterdam art dealer P. de Boer and received, in addition to Koerbecke’s work, an oil sketch by Carlo Calone (inv. no. 10645).

The Wels family, as descendants, on the restitution

“We found the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen and all the staff involved to be open, positive and fully committed. We owe a special thanks to them. The painting is now back in the ‘Alexander Haindorf Collection’ that we, as descendants, are endeavouring to reassemble, as far as possible. The restitution of the painting in person was a special and moving moment. We clearly felt that all those working at the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen were very happy about returning the painting and were just as moved as we were.
Such a process is often very long and requires the support of experts. We would, therefore, like to express our gratitude here to the specialist lawyer for Nazi-looted art, Dr. Sabine Rudolph.”

Anton Biebl on the restitution

“The Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen and our team of researchers in the newly established Provenance Research Department at the Staatliche Museumsagentur Bayern (State Museum Agency of Bavaria) are committed to the clarification of historical injustices and the restitution of artworks disappropriated during the Nazi era. Through painstaking and scholarly provenance research, lost cultural assets come to light and fair, historically just solutions are made possible,” emphasises Anton Biebl, Director of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen.

The Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen have restituted the work ‘The Porte Saint Martin in Paris’ to the heirs of Rudolf Hofmann and subsequently reacquired it. This outcome is the result of proactive provenance research and represents an important contribution to the restitution of cultural property to rightful owners whose identities had long remained unknown.

Historical background and provenance

The painting that was created around 1867 was sold at ‘Rudolph Lepke’s Kunst-Auctions-Haus’ in Berlin in 1902, the year of the artist’s death. No information about who originally consigned the work to Lepke has survived. The first clearly identifiable owner is a man called Rudolf Hofmann. He consigned the painting to the Hugo Helbing art dealership where it was offered for auction twice: once in spring 1934 and again in the summer of that same year. Hofmann handed Hugo Helbing a total of 45 objects to be sold at auction – including paintings, vases and metal objects. The work restituted, however, was not sold and remained in the Galerie Helbing on a sale or return basis.

The name Hofmann has been found in various sources including annotations in various hand copies of the Galerie Helbing catalogue, as well as a handwritten list of consignors in which the name is recorded as ‘R. Hofmann’, and the catalogue in the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (Central Institute for Art History) that lists the name as ‘Rud. Hofmann’. Research was greatly facilitated by the project ‘Unique source material on the German art trade: Digitalisation and indexing of annotated hand copies of catalogues of the Munich auctioneer Hugo Helbing at the Central Institute for Art History in Munich’.

The painting and its time in the Galerie Hugo Helbing before and after  ‘aryanisation’

In summer 1934, despite the prevalent antisemitic mood of the time, Hugo Helbing was one of the leading art dealers and auctioneers in southern Germany. However, with the enforcement of the ‘Gesetz über das Versteigerungsgewerbe’ (Auction Trade Act) on 16 October 1934, the situation deteriorated, as a compulsory membership in the ‘Reichskulturkammer’ (Reich Chamber of Culture) amounted to a de facto ban on Jewish art dealers holding auctions. During the November pogroms of 1938, Hugo Helbing was violently attacked. This led to serious injuries and ultimately to his death on 30 November 1938.

Max Heiss (1891–1952), an art trade advisor to the regional director of the ‘Reichskammer der bildenden Künste’ (Reich Chamber of Fine Arts), took over the ‘processing’ of the gallery that was being ‘held in trust’. In March 1941, the Galerie Helbing was ‘Aryanised’ through its sale to Jakob Scheidwimmer (b. 1895). Under its new name ‘Galerie an der Wagmüllerstrasse; proprietor Jakob Scheidwimmer, formerly Hugo Helbing’, the remaining items held on a sale or return basis, including works of art of Jewish ownership, were initially retained. On 29 October 1941, these were then expropriated by the Gestapo – in turn, this led to the compilation of a list dated 6 January 1942 that includes, among other things, the painting restituted here.

Unknown jewish property 

In 1942, Ernst Buchner, the Director General of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen selected, several works from the gallery’s holdings on Wagmüllerstrasse that had been classified as ‘non-Aryan property’ – among them this painting by Albert Schwendy. The acquisition was duly documented in the museum’s inventories and purchase ledgers of 1943. At the time however the identities of the original Jewish owners remained unknown, which made restitution impossible for both the Allied Forces or the Museum. To support ongoing efforts to clarify its history, the work was registered on the Lost Art Database in 2019.

The identification of the owner Rudolf Hofmann

Thanks to intensive provenance research Rudolf Hofmann (b. 13 September 1879 in Bauerbach/Meiningen – d. 23 January 1945 in Munich) could be finally identified, restoring recognition to a long-overlooked rightful owner. The retired bank director moved with his family from Thuringia to Munich in May 1933, settling at Pienzenauerstrasse 22/0. Although Hofmann was married to a non-Jewish woman and his children had been baptised as Protestants, he was nevertheless classified as Jewish by the Nazi regime – forced to pay Jewish Capital Levy in 1938 and to perform compulsory labour in Milbertshofen in 1941. Due to his Jewish heritage, he lost his house and his children were placed in the care of a guardian. In 1942, the family was moved to a ‘Judenhaus’ (Jewish house) on Elisabethstrasse – a building that was bombed during an air raid in January 1945. While Rudolf Hofmann and his daughter Mathilde died among the rubble, his wife Franziska and their son Werner survived.

Proactive commitment by the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen

The restitution and subsequent repurchase of the painting ‘The Porte Saint Martin in Paris’ from the heirs of Rudolf Hofmann marks another step in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen's ongoing commitment to identify unlawfully seized artworks and returning them to their rightful owners. Through continuous and meticulous provenance research, the museum makes a meaningful contribution to the historical reckoning of the Nazi era and its crimes, honoring both past injustices and the preservation of our shared cultural heritage.

The Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen and the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum have restituted a painting by Hans Wertinger (Philip of the Palatinate, Bishop of Freising, inv. no. 12030) and two 16^th-century sculptures from Nuremberg (the wooden statuettes ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’, inv. nos. 53/137 and 53/138) to the heirs of the Berlin banker and entrepreneur Jakob Goldschmidt (1882–1955). The painting had been transferred to the collection of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in 1953 having formerly been held by the Nazis; the sculptures had been acquired by the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in exchange for other works that same year.

The collector Jakob Goldschmidt

Jakob Goldschmidt was one of the most influential bankers in the Weimar Republic and was regarded as a ‘central figure in the world of finance’. His position as a leading member of the management board of the major Darmstädter und Nationalbank (Danat-Bank) and as a member, at times, on more than 100 supervisory boards, testify to this. From the end of World War I onwards, Goldschmidt collected art on a large scale and was able to build up a significant collection. He was a patron of Berlin’s museums and supported the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. He furnished his country house in the Potsdam villa colony of Neubabelsberg, that he had had built in 1921, with numerous works of art. Goldschmidt also acquired a villa in Berlin’s Matthäikirchstrasse in 1929, in which there were also large numbers of artworks.

After the collapse of the Danat-Bank in summer 1931 in the course of the Great Depression, Goldschmidt was held (jointly) responsible by the Nazis for the subsequent bank crisis. In April 1933, he was initially forced to emigrate to Switzerland. From there he fled to New York in 1936. Goldschmidt suffered considerable financial losses as a result and, among other things, had to pay Reich Flight Tax totalling more than 1.8 million Reichsmarks. In 1940, he lost his German citizenship and one year later his remaining assets in Germany were confiscated by the Nazis. He initially managed to rescue part of his art collection and take it abroad, thanks to the support of Fritz Thyssen. The rest of the collection that, in the meantime, was also being used as collateral, remained in Germany where it was auctioned off, mainly in two sales, in 1936 and 1938.

ON THE FURTHER PROVENANCE OF THE WORKS

The painting by Hans Wertinger was acquired by Julius Streicher, the Gauleiter for Middle Franconia, through the Frankfurt auctioneer’s Hugo Helbing, run by Arthur Kaufmann, in June 1936.

At this auction, around 300 works from the Goldschmidt Collection were offered anonymously as ‘artworks in the ownership of a Berlin collector’. These included the two sculptures that were, however, not sold. After the end of the war, the American Forces seized the painting by Wertinger, found in the house of Julius Streicher’s brother Max Streicher in Deggendorf, Bavaria, and initially took it to nearby Schloss Egg.

On 2 October 1946, the work was removed to the Central Collecting Point in Munich. As no application for restitution had been filed, the Free State of Bavaria was able to transfer ownership of the painting in 1953 on the basis of the Allied Control Council Directive No. 57 of 15 January 1948, after which it entered the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. The sculptures that had not sold in 1936 were again offered for sale in March 1938 by the auction house Lempertz in Cologne. The next known owner was the art dealer Johannes Hinrichsen of Bad Aussee (formerly of Berlin), who presumably bought them at Lempertz and sold them on to the Swiss art collector and armaments manufacturer Emil Bührle. In 1953, the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum acquired both sculptures from Bührle in exchange for a 14^th-century Pietà.

There is clear evidence that Goldschmidt’s financial situation deteriorated rapidly under Nazi rule. Jakob Goldschmidt was forced to accept the sale of part of his art collection. The auctions would not have taken place were it not for Nazi rule and are, therefore, to be considered a manifestation of the disappropriation of assets as a result of persecution. Seen in this light, the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts has agreed to the restitution of the artworks.

· Statement by Markus Blume, Bavarian State Minister for Science and the Arts:

“The results of the provenance research are clear: Jakob Goldschmidt was unjustly persecuted during the Nazi era and robbed of his assets by the Nazi state. The restitution of a painting by Hans Wertinger and two sculptures from the 16^th-century to the rightful heirs is, therefore, more than just a matter of course for us; it is an ethical obligation! With the restitution of unlawfully seized art treasures, we are restoring a measure of justice and making a decisive contribution towards the processing of Nazi crimes. Many thanks to the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen and the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum who were able to clarify the provenance of the three artworks owned by Jakob Goldschmidt through their painstaking research.”

· Statement by Prof. Dr. Bernhard Maaz, Director General of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen:
“The painter Hans Wertinger is one of the most important German Renaissance artists and was a portraitist of great mastery. We are delighted to be able to hand over such an exquisite work to the descendants of the persecuted family after so many decades and as a result of lengthy research, as a reminder commemorating a magnificent former private collection.”

· Statement by Dr. Frank Matthias Kammel, Director General of the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum:
“The return of the two statuettes from the circle of Veit Stoß to their rightful owners is also a source of great satisfaction for the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum.”

· Statement from the Goldschmidt heirs:
“Jakob Goldschmidt’s heirs are very pleased about the return of the artworks and the associated recognition that their loss was the result of the vicious agitation and persecution to which their grandfather was subjected, before and even more so after the seizure of power by the Nazis.”