Provenance research and compilation of documentation relating to works of art purchased for the Städtische Bildersammlung Cottbus in 1933–1945

I. Carl Blechen Collectio

In 1993, the purchases of the Städtische Bildersammlung Cottbus (Cottbus municipal art collection) in the period 1933–1945 made up approx. two thirds of the stock of works by Carl Blechen: of 81 artworks, 54 were purchases and acquisitions from the period in question.

A set of nine children’s drawings from a private donation in 1942 did not form part of the research, meaning the number of works to be examined was reduced to 45.

For these, initial information on provenance was documented in the 1993 inventory catalog of the Carl Blechen Collection at the Prince-Pückler-Museum Park and Palace Branitz Foundation1. It was the starting point for the research.

20 works were acquired on the Nazi art market. One artwork was bought after 1945 from the GDR’s Staatlicher Kunsthandel (state art trade), 13 come from private collections and the origin of 11 purchases remains unknown.

The check of known/identified previous owners revealed that none of the examined works of Carl Blechen in the art collection of the municipal Prince-Pückler-Museum Foundation originate from a purchase that would entail the clarification of restitution issues.

II. Purchase in 1942: Lovis Corinth, “Alter Mann in Ritterrüstung” (Old Man in Knight’s Armor), 1915, oil/canvas, 120 x 80 cm, signed top right Lovis Corinth 1915

In the works catalog Lovis Corinth 1958, the only details found under no. 654 as previous owner are:

O. Claas, Königsberg; Karl Blum, Berlin.

The painting was auctioned on November 21, 1933, cat. 2069, no. 153 at Rudolph Lepke art auction house, Berlin. It is likely to have been bought there by the businessman (confectionery wholesale representative) and art collector Heinrich Glosemeyer2 of Bremen. He sold the painting to the city of Cottbus in 1942. In his correspondence with the mayor von Baselli, Glosemeyer himself did not mention where he had acquired the painting.

Documents in the SMB central archive revealed that Karl Blum, who loaned this and another painting for the Lovis Corinth memorial exhibition at the Nationalgalerie in 1926, was the co-owner of the Berlin bank Bernheim Blum & Co. This was liquidated in 1938, and the Jewish co-owner Robert Bernheim emigrated.

Nothing is known about the whereabouts of Karl Blum.

It only emerged after the end of the project in 2013 that he was also of Jewish descent. His name is listed in the Berlin directory until 1935. It has not yet been determined whether and when he left Germany. Instead, details were found of possible heirs who have not yet been contacted.

This points to a future restitution case. This would require conclusive work to be carried out to enable further steps to be taken for the necessary restitution.

1) Beate Schneider, Carl Blechen Bestandskatalog. Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik. Niederlausitzer Landesmuseum Cottbus, E. A. Seemann Verlag, Leipzig 1993

2) The Bremen collectors Arnold Blome, Heinrich Glosemeyer and Hugo Oelze. Provenance research at the Kunsthalle Bremen. At: www.kunsthalle-bremen.den

(c) Stiftung Fürst-Pückler-Museum / Park und Schloss Branitz