Indexing and provenance-related investigation of objects in the Kunstsammlungen und Museen Augsburg that were purchased between 1933 and 1955/60

Following the reappraisal of the estate of art dealer Karl Haberstock and the examination of the provenance of objects from the Karl und Magdalene Haberstock Stiftung and the resulting publication Karl Haberstock. Umstrittener Kunsthändler und Mäzen which was released in 2008, the Kunstsammlungen und Museen Augsburg have made it their goal to investigate the provenance of objects in the period 1933–1945 and the old stock—which is recorded as coming into the permanent collection in the individual institutions of the Kunstsammlungen und Museen up until the reorganization and restructuring in 1964—for missing provenances and possible suspicions regarding unlawful acquisition.

The aim of the project was to create dossiers on all critical acquisitions in this period so that corresponding information on the respective objects would be available in the event of any restitution demands. To supplement this preventive approach, the aim was—in cases where acquisitions were found to be obviously and clearly unlawful—to take an offensive course of action by intentionally approaching the heirs or their representatives directly in order to bring about a fair and just solution.

In spring 2012, this second step was taken with an amicable settlement on an ornamental vessel in the shape of a shell. It came from the Budge collection and was verifiably identified as an art object that had been unlawfully confiscated from its Jewish owners.

The drinking cup, which is a symbolic object of great cultural significance for Augsburg, was retained for the museum’s collections in return for a compensation payment to the heirs of 90,000 euros, which the city raised with the help of art patrons Kurt F. Viermetz and Georg Haindl and the Prinz-Fonds.

(c) Kunstsammlungen und Museen Augsburg