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Marion Ackermann, President of the SPK, explains: " Once the provenance was clear, the SPK contacted the heirs of Charlotte Prybram-Gladona and I am delighted that a work can be returned to its rightful owner. With the restitution, we want to try to make amends for the injustice suffered."

"As director, it is important to me that we, as a public collection, do not become the beneficiaries of third parties' predicaments caused by political, ethnic or racial persecution. The return of cultural assets lost as a result of persecution is therefore a matter of course for us," adds Antje Scherner, Director of the Sculpture Collection and Museum of Byzantine Art.

Albin von Prybram-Gladona (1894, Zurich - 1974, Salzburg), who came from a wealthy Viennese diplomatic family, studied art history and music in Oxford, Munich and Basel from 1909. He worked as a journalist for various newspapers. In 1929, he acquired shares in Bayerische Verlags GmbH, which also published "Welt am Sonntag", among others, and became publishing director there.

Although Albin von Prybram-Gladona's parents, who came from Jewish families, had already converted to the Protestant faith or Catholicism before their marriage, von Prybram-Gladona was persecuted on racial and religious grounds after the seizure of power. In 1935, he fled to Austria for a few months. When he returned to Munich, the publishing house had already been taken over by the NSDAP-owned Franz-Eher-Verlag, and Albin von Prybram-Gladona had lost his job and his shares in the publishing house. Without a job, he was no longer able to finance his home and moved in with his parents-in-law.

Due to the serious deterioration in his professional, financial and spatial circumstances as a result of Nazi persecution, Albin von Prybram-Gladona sold parts of his art collection. In 1938, he and his wife Charlotte Margarethe von Prybram-Gladona, née Herrmann (1910 - 2002), were able to emigrate to France, where he was interned several times and regularly checked by the Gestapo. In June 1941, both were deprived of their citizenship. He returned to Munich in 1945.

In November 1935, Albin von Prybram-Gladona sent the work "Christ at the Column", created around 1700, to the Bode Museum in the hope that it would acquire the sculpture. In fact, the director, Theodor Demmler, decided to buy it for 400 marks.

Given the timing of the sale and the financial pressure Prybram-Gladona was under, the sale must be categorised as a loss of assets due to persecution.

About the work:

Christ before the scourging column
Southern Germany or Austria, early 18th century
Full-round statuette in one piece, only both hands (now added) attached. Boxwood, later partial version
Total h. 53.2 cm, h. of the figure 44.3 cm, the base plate 10.7 x 7 cm, the plinth h. 18.8 cm, w. 18.8 cm, d. 17.4 cm.
Inv. no. 8498

This finely crafted, medium-sized figure depicts the type of devotional image of Christ in front of a low flagellation column that was particularly popular in the 17th century. The posture of the elongated figure with his hands resting loosely on his back is unusually relaxed and clearly less characterised by suffering than most other depictions of the time. A convincing attribution of this high-quality work to a southern German or Alpine artist has not yet been made. Most recently, the circle of the Schwanthaler in Ried am Inn and Jakob Hunger, who worked in Rapperswil, have been suggested.

Press image for download: https://www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/newsroom/presse/pressebilder.html