Paula Modersohn-Becker, "Kleines Mädchen neben einem Birkenstamm"

On February 7, 1948, the Kunstmuseen Krefeld acquired the painting “Kleines Mädchen neben einem Birkenstamm” (Young Girl by a Birch Tree Trunk) (1904, oil on cardboard, framed, 73 x 55 cm) by Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876, Dresden–1907, Worpswede) at an auction of Dr. Ernst Hauswedell in Hamburg. The painting was bought for the collection together with some other graphic prints for a price of 21,000 Reichsmarks.

In June 2015, the Kunstmuseen Krefeld received a restitution claim from the heirs of Franz Kochmann, represented by the law firm Huth Dietrich Hahn. There is evidence that the Jewish manufacturer and art collector Franz Kochmann (1872–1959) of Dresden owned the picture from 1919 to 1929. Kochmann and his wife emigrated to the Netherlands in 1940 and deposited works from his art collection in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. The painting by Modersohn-Becker was not among them.

No information on the provenance of the picture could be found in the museum’s archives beyond the documentation relating to the purchase in 1948. Therefore, in 2016, the Kunstmuseen Krefeld commissioned Dr. Katja Terlau of Cologne to carry out provenance research, funded by the German Lost Art Foundation, into the picture by Paula Modersohn-Becker. The final report documents the facts and the state of the knowledge as far as possible. Despite the extensive research, it has not been possible to close the gaps in provenance to date. No reliable information on the whereabouts of the painting between 1929 and 1948 could be found. It is likely that the work was already on the art market in 1935; one of the four works by Modersohn-Becker offered by Galerie Vömel, Dusseldorf, in 1935 is possibly the same painting as the one investigated here. On the back of the wooden frame, there is also a sticker with the name of the F. G. Conzen framing factory and art dealership, Dusseldorf, which made a frame for a painting by Paula Modersohn-Becker on behalf of Galerie Vömel in 1935. A sticker for the transportation, removals and storage company “La Continentale Menkès, 125 Chaussée d'Anvers, Brussels” with a French and Dutch label indicates the work was transported or stored. Franz Kochmann, who died in 1956, and his wife Klara did not register any claims in Germany after 1945 for the loss of artworks, even though other compensation requests (for professional and economic advancement, damage to assets and the payment of special charges) were submitted. Dr. Terlau concluded that, based on the provenance research findings to date, it was not possible to prove that the oil painting “Kind an einem Birkenstamm” painted by Paula Modersohn-Becker in 1904 had been seized from Franz Kochmann’s collection as a result of Nazi persecution.

A statement to that effect has been sent to the lawyers representing the heirs of Franz Kochmann.

(c) Kunstmuseen Krefeld