TY - JOUR
TI - Combating Illicit Trade in Cultural Objects in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (State Museums in Berlin): Policies in Acquisitions and Loans and Research of Provenance
AU - Winter, Petra
AU - Dietrich, Florentine
TI - Combating Illicit Trade in Cultural Objects in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (State Museums in Berlin): Policies in Acquisitions and Loans and Research of Provenance
AB - 
	In March 2018 the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz (State Museums in Berlin) received a significant bequest from the estate of art historian Barbara Göpel (1922-2017), consisting of two paintings, 46 drawings, and 52 prints by Max Beckmann (1884-1950) and one painting by Hans Purrmann (1880-1966). This bequest represents an important addition to the collection of classical modernist works in the Nationalgalerie (National Gallery) and the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings). In 1937 – during the time of National Socialism – the Nationalgalerie lost 505 artefacts as a result of the confiscation of “degenerate art”, among them eight works of Beckmann, who was in those times classified as a “degenerate artist”. But from whom did the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin receive this bequest? And is it generally important to ask from whom a museum receives an artefact? Where did the artworks come from? Is their provenance “clean” in the sense of the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art? Is it legitimate to make a distinction between the person of the collector/estate and the works of art? These are some of the – legal but also moral – questions a museum must address before accepting any cultural object that belonged to a collector who was actively working for a gigantic project like the “Führermuseum Linz”. Or should rejection of the bequest be considered?
VL - 2023
IS - 2/2023 (9)
PY - 2023
SN - 2391-7997
C1 - 2450-050X
SP - 65
EP - 86
DO - 10.4467/2450050XSNR.23.023.18643
UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/saaclr/article/combating-illicit-trade-in-cultural-objects-in-the-staatliche-museen-zu-berlin-state-museums-in-berlin-policies-in-acquisitions-and-loans-and-research-of-provenance
KW - archives
KW - museums
KW - provenance research
KW - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin