Specialist restitution resigned from the Museum in Germany
ARTinvestment.RU   20 марта 2020

The reason for leaving was the lack of concrete actions the management of the Museum to return looted during the Second world war, work

sibyl Ehringhaus, an expert on provenance, collaborated with the Bavarian Museum Georg Schaefer for three years. Her task was to find out the origin included in the collection of the Museum of the order of thousands of paintings and thousands of drawings, prints and watercolors as well as identifying the works to be restituted.

George Schaefer, whose private collection formed the basis of the Museum acquired a large part of art and graphy in 1950-х years in Munich, at that time — center of trade in illegally seized from the previous owners art. It is known that among dealers who have Schaefer bought works of art, including the personal photographer of Adolf Hitler.

According to Ehringhaus, cited The New York Times, after she found some to be restituted works, no action on the part of the management of the Museum followed. Moreover, according to her, she was denied access to the historical documents of crucial importance to its research, and is forbidden to communicate on matters of investigation with its counterparts in other Museum.

the representative of the owners of the Museum's collection — private Fund, managed by the Schaefer family, said that they are aware of the requirements of the restitution of some works, but they believe that the German government, not the new owners need to answer the queries of the heirs of the affected families. Fund George Schaefer argues that works of art were bought legally and in good faith and that the compensation to the victims of the Nazis is a state function, which should take over the German government as "the Federal government of Germany as legal successor of the Third Reich is responsible for compensation for the crimes of the Third Reich". The Foundation's representative also stated that the return for the restitution of works of art violate a law banning funds to lose assets.

the Minister of culture of Germany Monica Gruetters in 2018 challenged the view that only the government is responsible for the payment of compensation to heirs of victims of Nazi looting. "Historical and moral responsibility for compensation for illegal seizure of works of art by the Nazis is not only state... We can and should expect much greater participation from private collectors and art dealers".

But it is probable that these words of the Minister will remain in the realm of expectations. Currently, the Museum Georg schäfer from the heirs of Jewish collectors claim approximately 20 works belonging to the Museum. Ehringhaus says she believes many of them are justified, but, according to the terms of the contract, she could not comment on specific cases.

the Material was prepared by Maria Kuznetsova AI

Source: nytimes.com