Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts restitutes two works to the heirs of the art dealer Bachstitz
Press release from 07/09/2013
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation today returned two works from the Museum of Decorative Arts of the National Museums in Berlin to the two grandsons of the art dealer Kurt Walter Bachstitz. The objects in question are a writing tablet and a bronze mortar from the Renaissance period. The objects had been acquired in 1943 by the former Schlossmuseum Berlin, the predecessor of the Kunstgewerbemuseum, from the "Kunsthandel K.W. Bachstitz".
Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, said: "I am pleased that with this restitution we have clarified another case in which the Foundation was in possession of unlawfully confiscated cultural property. The decision in favour of restitution was based on the Washington Principles of 1998." Lawyer Henning Kahmann from the Berlin law firm von Trott zu Solz Lammek said on behalf of the heirs: "We would like to thank the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation for its exemplary and impartial examination of the matter."
Kurt Walter Bachstitz was a German-Austrian art dealer who was persecuted by the National Socialists because of his Jewish origins. He initially lived in Vienna and from 1938 in The Hague, where he had been running the "Kunsthandel K.W. Bachstitz" since 1920. Bachstitz was one of the patrons of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, from which today's Gemäldegalerie and the sculpture collection of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin emerged. After the capitulation of the Netherlands in 1940, the pressure of persecution on Bachstitz increased. He had to resign from his position as managing director of the art dealership, but continued to play a key role in the company in the background until his emigration. He was temporarily imprisoned in 1943. In 1944, he was able to avoid deportation to a concentration camp by emigrating to Switzerland. Against this background, the sale of the two objects in August 1943 must be categorised as a persecution-related transaction. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation has therefore decided to return the items.
The first is a rare example of a writing tablet that can be opened several times and was made in Tyrol around 1500. Its fir wood frame with ornamental wooden inlays contains three slates. The piece, which is of particular cultural-historical interest, was once part of the famous collection of Albert Figdor, which was auctioned off in 1930. The second object is a bronze mortar lavishly decorated with twenty female herms. As in a number of comparable works, two male heads with long necks form the handles of the device. The mortar is a characteristic example of Italian utility bronzes from the second half of the 16th century.
The castle museum acquired a total of four objects from the Bachstitz art dealership in 1943. Two could not be returned, as they have been part of the Museum of Decorative Arts' lost collections since 1945.