Johann Alexander Thiele, “Leipzig seen from Lindenau”, oil on canvas, undated: This painting in the MbdK inventory was confiscated from the Wettin family during the Soviet occupation zone, restituted and reacquired in 2018.
Photo: MdbK Leipzig
Dr. Ulrike Saß, you have been the first permanent provenance researcher at the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts (MdbK) since June 2022. This Wednesday you are offering a guided tour on the topic of looted art in the museum’s holdings for the first time. Can you give our readers a little insight into your work?
Provenance research means first of all examining the ownership and possession history of works of art. In my case, this applies to the entire MdbK collection, but the focus is on objects that came to us during the time of National Socialism, the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ) and the GDR. I also examine the losses of the MdbK and critically examine the history of the house. I also come into contact with the regional and city history, with the art dealers and collectors that exist and have existed in Leipzig.
Interview
MDBK Leipzig
Ulrike Saß has been a provenance researcher at the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig since June 2022. Previously, she was junior professor for art historical provenance research at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn from 2018 to 2022. Saß studied art history and classical archeology in Leipzig and Bologna. In 2016 she received her doctorate with a thesis on the Galerie Gerstenberger and the art dealer Wilhelm Grosshennig in Leipzig.
Is my impression correct that provenance research has gained momentum in Germany?
Well, interest in provenance research goes in waves: sometimes there is a lot of research and funding, then the whole thing goes dormant for a while, then there is a small scandal and interest is back again – and so on. With regard to the works of art illegally confiscated during the Nazi era, the Washington Declaration of 1998 was definitely a milestone for provenance research. In it, 43 states and 13 non-governmental organizations declare in a non-binding agreement that they want to identify works of art stolen by the Nazis and find a “just and fair solution” with the heirs of the rightful owners.
From which period do most of the unlawfully confiscated works of art in the MdbK collection come from?
In fact, I would estimate that there are more works of art in our collection that have a GDR or SBZ confiscation context than those that were confiscated during National Socialism. This recent past has not yet been dealt with as much as the Nazi era. This is also because there is a legal basis for returning works of art that were confiscated from private individuals in the context of the land reform – but not for those that were confiscated through other processes during the GDR era.
What about works of art from classical modernism that were defamed by the Nazis as “degenerate art” and confiscated from the museums that housed them?
We’re not really concerned with these works of art at the moment. It was agreed that these objects, many of which were sold abroad, would remain where they are – because the German state confiscated them at the time. In this context, I think it is important to point out the difference between what the Nazis called “degenerate art” and art confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution. This is often confused.
Can you briefly explain this difference?
The Nazis called works of art from classical modernism “degenerate art,” which they denigrated because of their avant-garde form. The art confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution, on the other hand, covers all possible eras and styles – the main thing is that this art was once owned by a Jewish family that was persecuted after 1933 and from whom it was confiscated in this context.
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But some works of art fall into both categories, right?
Yes, but there aren’t that many. Although some art collectors at the beginning of the 20th century were also interested in the contemporary art of the time, i.e. classical modernism, in general the collectors, who mainly came from the upper middle class, also collected upper middle class art. And to a large extent these were also works of the Romantics, academic genre paintings, etc. The collectors were not always modern and avant-garde.
How exactly were the works of art confiscated from their Jewish owners back then?
The most obvious variant is confiscation: Nazi officials went into a private household and claimed art because the owners were persecuted for being Jewish. Works of art that had to be sold in the context of the escape, for example in order to pay the Reich flight tax or the ship ticket to America, are also considered confiscated due to Nazi persecution. Or even those that their owners simply couldn’t take with them because they only fled with a suitcase and then ended up in the hands of the Nazis.
The role of the art dealers who then traded in the works was ambivalent: on the one hand, they may have saved a large part of the art from destruction, but on the other hand, they enriched themselves on the basis of the disenfranchisement of their Jewish fellow citizens.
Provenance research is not intended to swing a moral cudgel against the people who lived back then and behaved differently in this inhumane dictatorship. But of course it is important to work through these processes of withdrawal and, for example, to show what opportunistic behavior was. This also applies to museums. Their management knew about the deportations and emigration of the collectors – and yet they willingly held out their hand. Engaging with this past also provides an opportunity to think about how we can do it better.
Some art dealers that traded in confiscated art during the Nazi era still exist today – for example the CG Boerner art dealer, which was formerly based in Leipzig and is now in Düsseldorf and New York. Are these institutions also coming to terms with their history?
It would be nice if they would do it – but these are private people and institutions who cannot be obliged to do so. So it’s very different. Some art dealers have come to terms with their history – the Weinmüller auction house, which was based in Munich and Vienna, is the best-known example from research. As for the art dealer CG Boerner: They still have all the archive materials and something is being created about it, but there are no comprehensive publications yet. In general, these processes of scientific processing can take a very long time.
Looted art from Africa is currently a major issue in German politics. Is this also what your research at the MdbK is about?
In principle, of course, this also falls into the area of provenance research, but as far as I know we don’t have such works of art in our inventory, so they are not part of my work. However, there are works of art in the MdbK’s holdings that contain colonialist statements – and we are also dealing with that.
What are you currently working on?
Among other things, this year I’m starting a project called »Making Visible. Traces of Jewish involvement in the MdbK”. For this I am working with the publicist Sharon Adler and the artist Shlomit Lehavi. We want to search together for people who belonged to the Jewish religious community or who were persecuted as Jews after 1933 and who were active as patrons of the museum. This actually hasn’t been addressed yet. Following this, I am planning a large exhibition in 2026 that will focus on art collections from Jewish families in Leipzig. So I’m currently working on something more comprehensive. That’s the beauty of this permanent position: you can plan longer, develop your own projects and enter into long-term collaborations with other institutions in the city.
Since 2019, the second Wednesday in April has been International Day of Provenance Research. Have you already planned something for this?
This year I would like to take this opportunity to invite the people of Leipzig to talk to me about works of art that they own and whose origins they may not know – maybe we can find out something together.
Ulrike Saß’ tour “Looted art in the MdbK?” on provenance research in the MdbK collection starts on January 17th at 6 p.m. and is free.
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