22.10.2024
Gemäldegalerie
In 1935, Dresdner Bank sold approximately 4,400 works of art to the state of Prussia, which subsequently distributed them to the state museums. Since 2018, the Zentralarchiv of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin has been conducting a provenance research project that seeks to determine whether the works still held in the museums’ collections today include cultural assets that were seized within the context of Nazi persecution. One such group of paintings was confiscated from the Matthiesen Gallery. A fair and equitable agreement has now been reached in cooperation with the descendants of the gallery’s original proprietors – one that takes into due consideration the historical context of the acquisition.
The descendants of the gallery’s original proprietors will receive the following artworks: Anthony van Dyck, follower of: Portrait of a Man in Knight’s Armour (circa 1619); two Dutch artworks previously accredited to Jan van de Capelle: Sailing Ships / Calm Waters with Single-Masted Ships and Statenjacht (18th century) and Naval Ships / Sailing Ships on the Merwede at Dordrecht (second half of the 17th century); Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, replica: Christ Carrying the Cross; Dutch, previously accredited to Ambrosius Benson: Portrait of a Man / Portrait of Melanchthon (1546/1555). Remaining in the Gemäldegalerie’s collection: The Temptation of Saint Anthony from Jan (Wellens) de Cock’s circle.
In the 1920s, Jewish art dealer Franz Zatzenstein-Matthiesen took out loans for his Berlin gallery, before fleeing from the Gestapo in 1933 and escaping to Switzerland. The following year, he handed a selection of artworks from his gallery’s inventory over to the bank in order to repay his outstanding debts. These were subsequently transferred to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in 1935 as part of the Dresdner Bank deal. The agreement that has now been reached with Matthiesen’s descendants takes into consideration the damage sustained as a result of Nazi persecution, as well as the fact that the liabilities in question also pertain to debts dating from before 1933, which the gallery owner would have been obliged to repay even if he had not been subject to the persecution – albeit under considerably more favourable conditions.
The descendants of Franz Zatzenstein-Matthiesen explain: “The SPK has made considerable efforts to work together with the descendants of the original proprietors of the Matthiesen Gallery to come to a fair and equitable agreement concerning these artworks. We are extremely grateful to the SPK for the responsible manner in which they have handled this particular situation.”
As a museum and public institution, we see it not only as our obligation but also as a matter of course that we should work together with the relevant parties to find equitable and appropriate solutions when dealing with artworks that have been positively identified as cultural assets seized due to Nazi persecution. As such, systematic research into the provenance of our paintings is crucial – an essential element of which involves research into the history of the art and antiques trade. The paintings in question bear witness to past injustices. For that reason, I am overjoyed that we have been able to return several paintings to the descendants of the Matthiesen Gallery.
Dagmar Hirschfelder, director of the Gemäldegalerie