Wartime loss of the Berlin antiquities collection turns up at the Museum of Cultural History in Magdeburg
Press release from 05/05/2020
Museum of Cultural History Magdeburg hands over ancient Greek vase to the Collection of Classical Antiquities of the National Museums in Berlin - Vase had been considered a war loss since 1945 - on display in Magdeburg until 17 May, then in the Altes Museum in Berlin
The Museum of Cultural History Magdeburg is returning a Greek vase to the Collection of Classical Antiquities of the National Museums in Berlin. It is an Attic white-ground lekythos, an anointing oil vessel made in Athens in the 2nd half of the 5th century BC, which was used in the funerary cult. The lekythos was acquired for the Collection of Classical Antiquities in 1912. Until the 1930s, it was exhibited in the Altes Museum together with its counterpart, which is still missing today. At the beginning of the Second World War, the objects were packed away to protect them; the box was in the basement of the Pergamonmuseum at the end of the war in 1945. Nothing was known about the subsequent whereabouts of the vase until it was discovered in Magdeburg.
The Museum of Cultural History Magdeburg received the piece in 2001 with the Riecke estate. In the course of reorganising the art collections in Magdeburg, a research assistant at the museum discovered that one of the vases from the estate could be identical to the lost Berlin Lekythos. The Museum of Cultural History in Magdeburg then informed the Berlin Collection of Classical Antiquities. Extensive and lengthy research in the archive documents of the Berlin museum revealed that it was indeed the lost piece. The state capital Magdeburg, as the organisation responsible for the Museum of Cultural History Magdeburg, therefore decided to return the object. The white-ground lekythos is still on display at the Museum of Cultural History Magdeburg until 17 May and can be viewed there from today's reopening. It will then be presented on the main floor of the Altes Museum on Museum Island Berlin.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK: "We are delighted that the Director of the Museum of Cultural History in Magdeburg, Gabriele Köster, and the Mayor of Magdeburg, Lutz Trümper, have decided to return the object to the Collection of Classical Antiquities. Even 75 years after the end of the war, we still do not know whether many of the war losses in our collections have been irretrievably destroyed or whether they are undiscovered in another public collection. This is why the National Museums are gradually publishing loss catalogues for all their collections. This has often made it possible to identify objects that were thought to be lost."
Gabriele Köster, Director of the Magdeburg Museums: "We are delighted that this work of art has regained its biography and that we have been able to make a small contribution to restoring the integrity of Berlin's outstanding collection of antiquities, which was destroyed during the Second World War. The people of Magdeburg can enjoy the precious ointment jar, which has been in our collection unnoticed for almost two decades, until mid-May at our museum or later on the Museum Island."
Saxony-Anhalt State and Culture Minister Rainer Robra, who also represents his state on the SPK Foundation Board, says: "The example of the ancient Attic vase shows once again that the post-war period is not yet over for many museums in Germany. We are still researching, investigating and searching for collections that have been torn apart. It is a matter of course for the state of Saxony-Anhalt to return what belongs in other collections. It is a nice sign of solidarity if this valuable object can now once again inspire visitors in Magdeburg and later in Berlin after the museums have opened."
The Lekythos
The vase (inv. 30219, 47) with its slender, cylindrical body and narrow neck is covered with a white coating on which a figurative depiction has been painted in bright colours. It shows a farewell to a warrior. The lost counterpart (inv. 30219, 19) provided the continuation of the story, so to speak. It depicts a woman visiting the grave of a young warrior, who himself sits mourning his fate in front of his tomb. The two lekythes, made as a pair, were probably created in the decade 440/30 BC.
This type of lekythos vessel with its very delicate polychrome, i.e. multi-coloured, painting was only produced for the funeral ritual. The bottles contained oil for anointing the corpse and were used for laying out in the house and at the grave. In Athens in the second half of the 5th century BC - from around 460 to 400 BC - thousands of these vessels painted with matt colours were produced. Some painters specialised in this type of vase. The creator of the lekythos in question is known as the "square painter" because he often used a square with a chequerboard pattern in his ornamental bands.
The Berlin Collection of Classical Antiquities owns around 50 lekythos of this genre. The largest (with a height of over 75 cm) and latest ones, with their colourfulness, their often quite illusionistic painting style and the play of light and shadow, are also a "substitute" for the famous but not preserved wall painting of the time in Athens mentioned in written documents. In most cases, however, the delicate colours have been lost and can only be reconstructed on the basis of traces.
The piece belonged to the very important and valuable collection of the Jewish Frankfurt industrialist Friedrich Ludwig von Gans (1833-1920), who donated it to the Collection of Classical Antiquities in 1912. He was advised by Robert Zahn, curator of the Berlin Collection of Classical Antiquities (from 1900 to 1935), who later also arranged the donation to Berlin. In return, Gans received his aristocratic title from the Emperor.
The history of the loss
The history of the loss of the vessel and its counterpart can be traced on the basis of archival documents in the Collection of Classical Antiquities. Historical photos from 1916 and 1925 show that both vases were exhibited on the upper floor of the Altes Museum in the context of the Gans Collection. The piece that emerged in Magdeburg can be clearly identified on a room photograph of the hall by means of a characteristic missing part. In addition, both vessels were published for the first time in 1931 in an essay with photos as part of the Gans Collection.
When the antiquities collection was packed up at the beginning of the war in 1939, all objects were recorded in relocation lists. These are records of which objects were in which packing crate and where the crates were last moved to. The two lekythes by Gans were not recorded under their actual inventory numbers, partly because the relevant page is missing from the inventory of the Gans Collection, which consists of loose sheets. However, the pieces were given auxiliary numbers, which were drawn in pencil on the undersides of the vessel feet. Under these auxiliary numbers, they can be identified among the contents of a crate that was stored in the cellar of the Pergamonmuseum at the end of the war. They must have been stolen from this box in the turmoil of those weeks.
Hans-Joachim Riecke, who later found the vase in Magdeburg, published it in 1949 in a privately printed booklet in Magdeburg as being in private ownership, with the (demonstrably false) statement that the piece had turned up in the Berlin art trade in 1929.