Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation hands over Meyerheim painting to the German Historical Museum
Press release from 05/30/2016
The painting "Dragoner-Regiment von Borke Nr 7" (1864) by Friedrich Wilhelm Meyerheim was kept in the Nationalgalerie as so-called foreign property and was also published as such. In the course of research by the Deutsches Historisches Museum (DHM), it has now been clearly identified as belonging to the holdings of the former armoury. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation recently handed over the painting.
The painting had been acquired by the Zeughaus in 1944 at an auction organised by the Dorotheum in Vienna. However, it was not sent to Berlin, as planned, but was relocated to the Altaussee mine. From there, it was sent to the Central Collecting Point (CCP) in Munich, where it was listed under the card number 21808/2 and mistakenly handed over to the Nationalgalerie. The painting had long been listed as not belonging to the Nationalgalerie's collection, but it was only now that staff at the Deutsches Historisches Museum were able to identify the former armoury as the owner using the CCP database on the DHM's website. The Deutsches Historisches Museum is now undertaking further research into the provenance of the painting before 1944.
The return of the work is a success for the provenance research of both museums. This also includes the identification of third-party property. These are objects that are not owned by the Foundation and whose rightful owners are not known. The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin) document their third-party property in a series of publications: the first catalogue appeared in 1999 for the Gemäldegalerie, the volume on the Nationalgalerie was published in 2008 and the one on the Collection of Classical Antiquities is due to appear in 2017. The SPK also publishes the works identified as third-party property in the Lost Art Internet database of the German Lost Art Centre. Organisations or private individuals who are missing objects and suspect that they are in the Foundation's possession can contact the Foundation. If the enquirers are the actual rights holders, the SPK usually returns the objects. In 2015, two paintings from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz were returned to the Deutsches Historisches Museum.
The Deutsches Historisches Museum has been making its digitally recorded collection holdings available to the public in an online object database since 1992. To date, 600,000 data records are accessible via the museum's website, thus supporting provenance research.