Purchase of two watercolours by Wilhelm Lehmbruck - both works previously restituted to the heiress of the former owner Paul Westheim
Press release from 01/27/2012
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation recently transferred ownership of the two watercolours "Susanna" (1914) and "Mother and Child" (1918) by Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881-1919) to the heiress of the art critic and collector Paul Westheim, Dr Margit Frenk. The works were purchased by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation for the Kupferstichkabinett.
Paul Westheim (1886-1963), a well-known Berlin art critic, publisher of the monthly magazine "Das Kunstblatt" founded in 1917 and patron of contemporary art, was closely associated with the Nationalgalerie. During the Weimar Republic, he made paintings from his own collection available to the Nationalgalerie for exhibitions and in 1926 gave it Pechstein's "Portrait of Lotte Pechstein" from 1911, which was confiscated in the "Degenerate Art" campaign and is now lost. Westheim was well acquainted with Wilhelm Lehmbruck. After his suicide, Westheim ensured that the contents of the artist's studio were stored in the Nationalgalerie for years. Westheim was persecuted by the National Socialist regime from 1933 onwards due to his political convictions and his Jewish origins. In February 1933, the "Völkischer Beobachter" defamed Westheim personally as a "cultural Bolshevik". His monthly magazine "Das Kunstblatt" had to cease publication in March 1933. Leaving his collection behind in Berlin, Westheim fled to France in August 1933. Politically active against the Nazi regime in exile papers and under Gestapo surveillance in Paris, he was stripped of his German citizenship in June 1935. He was then forced to sell Lehmbruck's two now restituted works to the Nationalgalerie due to the economic hardship he had fallen into in exile in Paris.
His collection of around 3,000 objects, including around 50 paintings and sculptures, was partly lost after the end of the war; the two works "Susanna" and "Mother and Child" were in the holdings of the Nationalgalerie Ost and were therefore excluded from restitution requests and compensation negotiations before German reunification.
In the present restitution case, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation came to the conclusion that the sale of the two works was solely due to Westheim's economic hardship caused by persecution and emigration. It has therefore returned the two watercolours to Paul Westheim's legal successors on the basis of the Washington Principles and the "Handout" of 2001, which was co-developed by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. The heiress was immediately prepared to offer both works to the Foundation for sale at a generous price. This ensured that they would remain with the National Museums. In future, the provenance information on both works will always refer to their origin from the Westheim Collection, the restitution and the subsequent purchase by the Kupferstichkabinett.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, said: "We have decided in accordance with the Washington Principles adopted in 1998 and found an amicable solution with the heiress. We are very grateful for her willingness to sell the two works to the Foundation. We are delighted that the paintings can remain in the Kupferstichkabinett, as this also gives the history of the collection and Westheim's fate a worthy place in the museum to which he had felt a connection."
His collection of around 3,000 objects, including around 50 paintings and sculptures, was partly lost after the end of the war; the two works "Susanna" and "Mother and Child" were in the holdings of the Nationalgalerie Ost and were therefore excluded from restitution requests and compensation negotiations before German reunification.
In the present restitution case, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation came to the conclusion that the sale of the two works was solely due to Westheim's economic hardship caused by persecution and emigration. It has therefore returned the two watercolours to Paul Westheim's legal successors on the basis of the Washington Principles and the "Handout" of 2001, which was co-developed by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. The heiress was immediately prepared to offer both works to the Foundation for sale at a generous price. This ensured that they would remain with the National Museums. In future, the provenance information on both works will always refer to their origin from the Westheim Collection, the restitution and the subsequent purchase by the Kupferstichkabinett.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, said: "We have decided in accordance with the Washington Principles adopted in 1998 and found an amicable solution with the heiress. We are very grateful for her willingness to sell the two works to the Foundation. We are delighted that the paintings can remain in the Kupferstichkabinett, as this also gives the history of the collection and Westheim's fate a worthy place in the museum to which he had felt a connection."