Detail page - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

On 5 April 2022, the Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK) will hand over the bronze sculpture "Resting Woman", created by the Swiss sculptor Fritz Huf (1888-1970), to the Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg (SPSG). The SPK had restituted the work to the heiress of Hans (Jean) Fürstenberg, who had lost it due to his persecution during the National Socialist era. The provenance of the sculpture "Resting Woman" was intensively researched by employees of the Central Archive of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin as part of the preparation of the recently published inventory catalogue "The Collection of the Nationalgalerie 1905 to 1945". The heir - the French Fondation Fürstenberg-Beaumesnil - sold the sculpture to the SPSG. In the long term, the "Resting Woman" is to be installed in the park of Schönhausen Palace in Berlin-Pankow.

Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK, thanked the heiress for the cooperation: "I am delighted that we were able to find a quick solution for the sculpture "Resting Woman" with the Fürstenberg-Beaumesnil Foundation and that the work will be on public display in Berlin in the future. Hans 'Jean' Fürstenberg lived in the Tiergarten district, just a stone's throw away from the Villa von der Heydt, where my office is located today, and the Kulturforum. So his story is also very close to us."

Imke Gielen from the law firm von Trott zu Solz Lammek, which represents the Fondation Fürstenberg-Beaumesnil, explained: "The Fondation Fürstenberg-Beaumesnil welcomes the active provenance research by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which has led to the identification of the bronze sculpture, and is delighted that a solution has been found with the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation that will enable the bronze to return to the park of Schönhausen Palace."

Provenance of the sculpture "Resting Woman"

The 1923 sculpture "Resting Woman" (former signature of the Nationalgalerie B I 663, now: SPSG Skulpt.slg. 6262) belonged to the collection of Hans (Jean) Fürstenberg, the artist's brother-in-law, before the Second World War. Huf modelled the head on the bronze sculpture of his wife Natalie Luise Aniela (gen. Natascha), Fürstenberg's sister. An illustrated report in the magazine "Der Cicerone" shows the work of art in the garden of Fürstenberg's house in Berlin's Tiergarten district in 1924. It remained there until at least 1932, as further photos show. After Fürstenberg fled and was forced to sell his house, no trace of the sculpture was found. It was not until 1948 that it was found in the Czechoslovakian military mission's scrap store in Berlin's Osthafen harbour and handed over to the Nationalgalerie by the Magistrate of Berlin.

Due to the provenance gap between 1932 and 1948, the SPK contacted the heir's representative. Together they were able to establish that Hans (Jean) Fürstenberg had most probably lost the sculpture identified in the Neue Nationalgalerie's holdings in the course of the persecution-related sale of his house in 1938. The SPK has therefore restituted the sculpture to the Fondation Fürstenberg-Beaumesnil as a fair and equitable solution in accordance with the Washington Principles.

From 1951 to 1990, the sculpture was on loan to the Nationalgalerie in the park of Schönhausen Palace in Pankow. The palace has belonged to the SPSG since 2005 following its use as the official residence of the president and later as a guest house of the GDR. Large parts of the palace garden have already been restored in the style of the presidential garden designed by Reinhold Lingner in the 1950s.

Hans (Jean) Fürstenberg

Hans (Jean) Fürstenberg was born in Berlin in 1890, the son of the banker Carl Fürstenberg. As a Jew as defined by the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935, he was persecuted by the National Socialists. He was forced to give up his business ownership of Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft on 31 December 1936 and subsequently fled to France. In September 1938, he sold his villa in Admiral-von-Schröder-Straße, now Köbisstraße, to the German Reich. He was able to take his valuable library with him into exile, initially saving it from being seized by the National Socialists. In France, Hans and his wife Eugénie Fürstenberg lived in Paris and Beaumesnil Castle in Normandy. After the German occupation of France in 1940, they had to flee again. The castle and their Paris flat were confiscated by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg in 1940 and the books in his library were taken away. After the war, the Fürstenberg couple returned to Beaumesnil. Hans and Eugenie died childless a few months apart in 1982. They had already founded the Fondation Fürstenberg-Beaumesnil in 1964, which today manages Beaumesnil Castle and the associated castle park and makes them accessible to the public.

Press event for the arrival of the sculpture at Schönhausen Palace on
Tuesday, 5 April 2022, at 1.30 pm
Contact: Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation, Svenja Pelzel, Tel.: +49 331 9694-292 ; Mail: presse@spsg.de)

Further links

• Château de Beaumesnil
• Press photos