Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation restitutes four works by Munch and Kirchner to the heirs of Prof Dr Curt Glaser
Press release from 11/30/2012
Following extensive historical research, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the heirs of Prof Dr Curt Glaser have agreed on the return of four works from the former collection of Prof Dr Curt Glaser to his heirs.
Prof Dr Curt Glaser, a medical doctor, prominent art historian, art critic, author of important works of art history and well-known art collector, worked in Berlin museums from 1909 until he took over as director of the Berlin State Art Library in 1924. Prior to this, he had earned great merit during his work at the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett. As a friend and patron of the famous Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, he was able to lay the foundations for what is now one of the largest and most important collections of Munch prints in the Kupferstichkabinett.
When the National Socialists came to power, he was persecuted on account of his Jewish origins. Before he was forced to retire in September 1933, he had already been on leave from his post as director of the Art Library as a Jewish museum director unwelcome to the National Socialists at the time of the enactment of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. Having lost his position, Prof Glaser had neither a professional nor a personal future in Nazi Germany. In June 1933, he went into exile with his second wife, who was also Jewish. Their emigration took them to France, Switzerland, Italy and Cuba before finally reaching the USA, where Prof Glaser died in Lake Placid, New York, in 1943, before the end of the Second World War. Before he left Germany, he had large parts of his extensive art and graphics collection and his home furnishings as well as his art library auctioned off in two auctions immediately before and after the Nazi book burnings in May 1933. He was able to take some of the remaining artworks abroad with him.
At one of the two auctions, the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett acquired six prints by Edvard Munch. A further five prints by Ludwig Kirchner, three of which still exist today, were donated to the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett immediately after the auction. It is no longer possible to determine who the donor was.
In recognition of the persecution of Prof. Glaser by the Nazi regime and in appreciation of his great services to the Berlin museums, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the heirs of Prof. Dr Curt Glaser agreed on a "fair and equitable solution" in accordance with the Washington Principles. Accordingly, the works by Edvard Munch "Girl on the Beach" (mezzotint), "Prayer of an Old Man" (woodcut) and "Death and the Woman" (etching) as well as a woodcut by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner "Peasant Entertainment" will be returned to the heirs of Prof Curt Glaser. The remaining works remain the property of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation with the consent of the community of heirs - not least in memory of the former director and important scholar Prof. Dr Curt Glaser.
If you have any questions for the heirs' lawyers, please contact:
Attorney David J. Rowland
Rowland & Associates
Two Park Avenue
New York 10016
USA
Tel: 001(212)685-5509
Fax: 001(212)685-8862
Law firm Schink & Studzinski
Ostseestraße 109
10409 Berlin
Tel: 0049 30 42851177
Fax: 0049 3042851178