Provenance Research Project regarding Mosse Collection

News from 03/07/2017

The „Mosse Art Research Initiative“ (MARI) was presented to the public today. SPK is partner to the project which is an unprecedented initiative in provenance research.

August Gaul, "Liegender Löwe“, 1903, sculpture, Alte Nationalgalerie
Returned to the heirs of Felicia Lachmann-Mosse in 2015: August Gaul's "Liegender Löwe“, 1903 © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

The collections of the publisher Rudolf Mosse (1843–1920) contained thousands of pictures, sculptures, art objects, books, and antiquities. Researchers at Freie Universität Berlin and the heirs of the German-Jewish publisher are joining forces in the search for art works expropriated by the National Socialists from the family of Rudolf Mosse.

The public/private partnership between public institutions in Germany and the descendants of victims of Nazi persecution is an unprecedented project in provenance research. It includes cooperation of numerous institutions and museums, such as the Kulturstiftung der Länder, the Foundation of the Jewish Museum Berlin or the Landesarchiv Berlin (Berlin State Archives). The research project is being funded by the Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste in Magdeburg and the Mosse Art Restitution Project.

Partner for the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, short SPK) is the Zentralarchiv der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (Central Archive of the National Museums in Berlin), which coordinates provenance research in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz. SPK has returned several works to the heirs of Felicia Lachmann-Mosse in 2015 and 2016 already.

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