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The SPK has restituted the works "Portrait of Bruno Cassirer" and "Bruno Cassirer's Father on his Deathbed" to the heirs of the Berlin art dealer and publisher Bruno Cassirer. They will remain part of the collection of the Alte Nationalgalerie, for which they were acquired with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung. From 4 March 2025, the "Portrait of Bruno Cassirer" will be presented in the permanent exhibition of the Alte Nationalgalerie on the 2nd floor. The second painting, "Bruno Cassirer's Father on his Deathbed", will be shown next year.

Bruno Cassirer (12.12.1872, Breslau - 29.10.1941, Oxford) was a publisher, gallery owner and horse breeder. Together with his cousin Paul Cassirer, he ran Bruno & Paul Cassirer, Kunst- und Verlagsanstalt, in Berlin's Tiergarten district from 1898, which represented Max Liebermann and Max Slevogt, among others. Bruno Cassirer also had a personal friendship with Slevogt. Even if there is no clear proof, the two works could be attributed to the Cassirer Collection on the basis of numerous clues. For this reason, the SPK agreed with the heirs, with whom it had been in dialogue since the end of 2023, on a return with a repurchase as a just and fair solution.

Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK: "I am very grateful to Bruno Cassirer's heirs for the consistently constructive discussions and for their willingness to sell both works to the Foundation following the restitution. This purchase was actually made possible thanks to the generous support of the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung - thank you very much for that too."

Theheirs of Bruno Cassirer say: "Bruno Cassirer died in Oxford, but it is appropriate that these portraits of him and his father find a permanent home in Berlin. We are grateful to Professor Parzinger and his colleagues at the SPK for their work on this case and for the collaborative partnership that has made it possible to finally right this historical wrong."

Bruno Cassirer 's heirs say: "Bruno Cassirer died in Oxford, but it is appropriate that these portraits of him and his father find a permanent home in Berlin. We are grateful to Professor Parzinger and his colleagues at the SPK for their work on this case and for the collaborative partnership that has made it possible to finally redress this historical injustice."

With the restitution of the portrait of Bruno Cassirer and the death portrait of his father by Max Slevogt to the heirs of Bruno Cassirer, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is taking responsibility for the crimes of National Socialist Germany. The private Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation is particularly keen to support the acquisition of these works. The portrait of Bruno Cassirer by Max Slevogt will thus remain an important work in the exhibition of the Alte Nationalgalerie as a permanent loan," says Martin Hoernes, Secretary General of the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung.

The Cassirer cousins ended their business partnership in 1901. While Paul continued to run the gallery, Bruno Cassirer henceforth managed "the Kunstanstalt and the art publishing house" alone. When the National Socialists seized power in 1933, reprisals against the Jewish family began. Bruno Cassirer's membership of the Reichsschrifttumskammer was revoked on 25 February 1937. This removed any possibility of continuing his professional career. Cassirer then emigrated to England in 1938. The publishing house was dissolved in 1938 on the basis of the "Ordinance on the Use of Jewish Assets". All remaining assets, including two houses and the art collection, were confiscated by the "Reich Commissioner for the Treatment of Enemy Property". The realisation of the assets took place between 1941 and 1944. In March 1944, parts of Bruno Cassirer's confiscated art collection were forcibly auctioned off on behalf of the Chief Finance President of Berlin-Brandenburg.

The two works that are now in the Nationalgalerie were acquired by the West Berlin State Museums, Prussian Cultural Heritage in the 1960s from the art dealer and publisher Wolfgang Gurlitt: in 1961 they bought the "Portrait of Bruno Cassirer" for DM 5,800 from his Munich gallery. The work "The Father of Bruno Cassirer on his Deathbed" was donated to the Nationalgalerie by Wolfgang Gurlitt in 1963. Neither artwork contains any provenance markings that point to the Bruno Cassirer Collection, nor are they explicitly mentioned on any list of works in Cassirer's possession. Nevertheless, evidence gathered in the course of provenance research indicates that there is a very high probability of attribution. It is known, for example, that Gurlitt bought three works at the forced sale of the Cassirer collection in 1944. Later correspondence between Gurlitt and other people shows that these two oil paintings were among them.

The SPK had already restituted works to the heirs of Bruno Cassirer in 2002 and 2016: in 2002, 156 prints, 145 pen and ink drawings by Max Slevogt, an ink drawing by Lovis Corinth and ten watercolours by Karl Walser were restituted to the heirs from the Kupferstichkabinett. In 2016, illustrated books in small editions, drawings and graphic prints were restituted from the holdings of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and subsequently purchased for the Staatsbibliothek.

Press photos:https://www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/newsroom/presse/pressebilder.html