The Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen have worked together to create a pioneering project of remembrance based on many years of successful provenance research carried out by both institutions. This research has enabled the restitution of numerous objects to their rightful owners. In Berlin, provenance research for the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin is carried out at the Zentralarchiv, which has played a significant role in the project’s development.
Art, Looting, and Restitution—Forgotten Life Stories tells of lost artworks and of Jewish people who once decisively shaped Germany’s cultural landscape but who were later ostracised, disenfranchised, persecuted, robbed, expelled, and ultimately murdered by the Nazis. Provenance researchers often come across unknown names when conducting their work. Who were these people? And what does it mean to their descendants when an artwork confiscated from a family member as a result of Nazi persecution is returned to them?
Behind every work whose history has been traced by provenance researchers there is the life story and the fate of a human being – and of entire families. These stories will be told in collaboration with Bayerischer Rundfunk and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, resulting in a multimedia library of remembrance which aims to contribute to a more open and tolerant society.
Institutions: Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Zentralarchiv), Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Project assistant: Dr Anke Lünsmann
Academic consultation: Dr Hanna Strzoda
Cooperation partners: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, Bayerischer Rundfunk
Project funding: German Federal Ministry for Culture and the Media
Project duration: 2022 to end of 2024
Project website: kunst-raub-rueckgabe.de