SPK restitutes works to Oppenheim heirs
Press release from 01/22/2018
Eleven works that belonged to Margarete Oppenheim's collection until 1936 were identified in the Kunstgewerbemuseum and the Skulpturensammlung of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. A fair and equitable solution based on the Washington Principles was found for the works, which came to the museums via different routes. Of the eleven returned pieces, the SPK reacquired five for the two museums.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK: "I would like to thank the heirs of Margarete Oppenheim for the fair and just solution we have found together. Even today, almost 20 years after the adoption of the Washington Principles, the issue of finding and returning Nazi-looted art is still an important task for the SPK, and I am happy about every case that has been resolved. That's why we dedicate ourselves to the question of the origin of the objects not only in the daily work of the curators, but also in in-depth, systematic provenance research projects."
Imke Gielen from the law firm von Trott zu Solz Lammek and David Rowland from the law firm Rowland & Associates, who represent the heirs, stated: "We also consider the solution found to be fair and would like to thank the SPK for its fair approach and welcome the Foundation's unrelenting efforts to clarify the provenance of the artworks in its holdings."
Margarete Oppenheim (1857 - 1935, née Eisner, widowed Reichenheim) was married to the chemist and industrialist Franz Oppenheim until his death in 1929. She owned one of the largest and most valuable art collections in Germany, with numerous Impressionist works, as well as porcelain, majolica, faience, silverware and small sculptures. Both Margarete and her heirs belonged to the group of people persecuted by the National Socialists because of their Jewish ancestry.
Margarete Oppenheim had already decreed in 1933 that the art collection was to be auctioned off by the executors of her will at the "most suitable time" and that the proceeds were to be donated to the estate. The auction took place in May 1936 at the Böhler auction house - at a time for which it can be assumed that the executors, who were Jews just like the previous heir and the subsequent heirs, did not choose it freely but were forced to do so by external circumstances. The sale must therefore be categorised as persecution-related. The Schlossmuseum had compiled the catalogue for the auction at its own expense. At the time, it was not unusual for such a catalogue to be produced without remuneration and it was often associated with the expectation that the museum would receive objects as gifts in return.
At the auction, the museum acquired a total of 24 objects, ten of which are still preserved today. In the same year, three further objects were inventoried, which are labelled in the files as Margarete Oppenheim's bequest or estate. Two of them still exist today. In the course of its research, the Kunstgewerbemuseum identified two further objects from the Oppenheim Collection that were loaned to the museum during Margarete's lifetime and remained there without ever being acquired. The solution found takes into account all the different aspects of the case.
The restituted and reacquired pieces are two art-historically significant works from the Danube School - a lamenting Mary and a St John from a crucifixion group by the monogramist IP - and three 18th century porcelains from the Meissen and Frankenthal manufactories.
Press photos: www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/newsroom/presse/pressebilder.html
Since the early 1990s, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation has been actively and responsibly addressing the issue of how to deal with cultural property that was confiscated as a result of persecution. It has already been able to agree on various fair and equitable solutions in more than 50 restitution requests. In total, it has returned more than 350 works of art and over 1,000 books to their rightful owners. The reasons for these were mostly restitution requests. However, with the increasing processing of its holdings through provenance research, the Foundation can also actively approach entitled persons itself. Its actions are always guided by the Washington Principles and the "Joint Declaration" of the federal, state and local governments.