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Germany releases names of first 25 looted artworks

The names of the first 25 works of art suspected of being looted by the Nazis from Jewish collectors and found in Munich were published by German authorities on Monday night.

Published: 12 November 2013 09:14 CET
Germany releases names of first 25 looted artworks
Otto Dix's Dame in der Loge (l) and Carl Spitzweg's Das Klavierspiel were among the 25 works whose names were released. Photo: DPA

Under mounting pressure, authorities released the names of 25 of the 1,400 artworks found in a Munich flat belonging to Cornelius Gurlitt , the son of a Nazi art dealer.

They put the list on website www.lostart.de – a government funded site based in Magdeburg – which soon crashed after the announcement. More names are expected to follow.

The 25 paintings include work by Marc Chagall, Eugène Delacroix, Carl Spitzweg, Otto Dix, Henri Matisse and Auguste Rodin.

A taskforce has also been formed to research the works and trace their ownership. It is being led by Ingeborg Berggreen-Merkel, a former Bavarian minister and lawyer.

CLICK HERE TO SEE SOME OF THE 25 ARTWORKS

Authorities said 970 of the 1,400 need to be checked by experts.   

The Nazis seized hundreds of thousands of works from Jewish collectors. Gurlitt’s father, Hildebrand Gurlitt, who bought and sold art for the Nazis. It is believed his son inherited the collection, which he kept in the flat for decades.

The 25 artworks are:

 -Antonio Canaletto, “S.A Giustina in Prà della Vale” in Padua, graphic print, 1751/1800

-Marc Chagall, “Allegory/Allegorical Scene,” undated painting

-Hans Christoph, “Paar (Couple),” 1924

-Honoré Daumier, “Don Quixote and Sancho Panza,” c. 1865

-Eugène Delacroix, “Moorish Conversation on a Terrace,” undated

-Otto Dix, “Woman in the Theatre Box,” 1922 and “Dompteuse,” 1922

-Conrad Felixmüller, “Couple in a Landscape,” 1924

-Erich Fraass, “Mother and Child,” 1922

-Bonaventura Genelli, “Male Nude,” undated

-Ludwig Godenschweg, “Male Portrait,” undated and “Female nude,” undated

-Otto Griebel, “Child at Table,” undated and “Veiled Woman,” 1926

-Bernhard Kretschmar, "Straßenbahn" (Tram), undated

-Wilhelm Lachnit, "Mädchen am Tisch (Girl at table), 1923 and "Mann und Frau am Fenster" (Man and woman at window), 1923

-Max Liebermann, "Reiter am Strand" (Rider on the beach), 1901

-Fritz Maskos, "Sinnende Frau" (Pensive Woman), 1922

-Henri Matisse, "Sitzende Frau / In einem Sessel sitzende Frau" (Sitting woman /Woman sitting in an armchair), 1924

-Auguste Rodin, "Etude de femme nue debout, les bras relevés, les mains croisées au-dessus de la tête", (Study of nude woman standing with her arms raised and hands crossed above her head), undated

-Théodore Rousseau, "Vue de la vallée de la Seine" (View of the valley of the Seine), undated

-Carl Spitzweg, "Das Klavierspiel" (Playing piano) ca 1840

-Christoph Voll, "Mönch" (Monk), 1921 and "Sprengmeister Hantsch" (The master exploder Hantsch), 1922

READ MORE: Masterpieces emerge from Nazi art trove

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ART

African-born director’s new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

One of the rare African-born figures to head a German cultural institution, Bonaventure Ndikung is aiming to highlight post-colonial multiculturalism at a Berlin arts centre with its roots in Western hegemony.

Published: 8 July 2023 10:13 CEST
African-born director's new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

The “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), or HKW, was built by the Americans in 1956 during the Cold War for propaganda purposes, at a time when Germany was still divided.

New director Ndikung said it had been located “strategically” so that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in the then-communist East, could see it.

This was “representing freedom” but “from the Western perspective”, the 46-year-old told AFP.

Now Ndikung, born in Cameroon before coming to study in Germany 26 years ago, wants to transform it into a place filled with “different cultures of the world”.

The centre, by the river Spree, is known locally as the “pregnant oyster” due to its sweeping, curved roof. It does not have its own collections but is home to exhibition rooms and a 1,000-seat auditorium.

It reopened in June after renovations, and Ndikung’s first project “Quilombismo” fits in with his aims of expanding the centre’s offerings.

The exhibition takes its name from the Brazilian term “Quilombo”, referring to the communities formed in the 17th century by African slaves, who fled to remote parts of the South American country.

Throughout the summer, there will also be performances, concerts, films, discussions and an exhibition of contemporary art from post-colonial societies across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

‘Rethink the space’

“We have been trying to… rethink the space. We invited artists to paint walls… even the floor,” Ndikung said.

And part of the “Quilombismo” exhibition can be found glued to the floor -African braids laced together, a symbol of liberation for black people, which was created by Zimbabwean artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti.

According to Ndikung, African slaves on plantations sometimes plaited their hair in certain ways as a kind of coded message to those seeking to escape, showing them which direction to head.

READ ALSO: Germany hands back looted artefacts to Nigeria

His quest for aestheticism is reflected in his appearance: with a colourful suit and headgear, as well as huge rings on his fingers, he rarely goes unnoticed.

During his interview with AFP, Ndikung was wearing a green scarf and cap, a blue-ish jacket and big, sky-blue shoes.

With a doctorate in medical biology, he used to work as an engineer before devoting himself to art.

In 2010, he founded the Savvy Gallery in Berlin, bringing together art from the West and elsewhere, and in 2017 was one of the curators of Documenta, a prestigious contemporary art event in the German city of Kassel.

Convinced of the belief that history “has been written by a particular type of people, mostly white and men,” Ndikung has had all the rooms in the HKW renamed after women.

These are figures who have “done something important in the advancement of the world” but were “erased” from history, he added. Among them is Frenchwoman Paulette Nardal, born in Martinique in 1896.

She helped inspire the creation of the “negritude” movement, which aimed to develop black literary consciousness, and was the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reassessing history

Ndikung’s appointment at the HKW comes as awareness grows in Germany about its colonial past, which has long been overshadowed by the atrocities committed during the era of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Berlin has in recent years started returning looted objects to African countries which it occupied in the early 20th century — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon.

“It’s long overdue,” said Ndikung.

He was born in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, into an anglophone family.

The country is majority francophone but also home to an anglophone minority and has faced deadly unrest in English-speaking areas, where armed insurgents are fighting to establish an independent homeland.

One of his dreams is to open a museum in Cameroon “bringing together historical and contemporary objects” from different countries, he said.

He would love to locate it in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.

“But there is a war in Bamenda, so I can’t,” he says.

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