Provenance research: Erich Heckel’s “Frauen am Meer”

The painting “Frauen am Meer” (Women by the Sea) by Erich Heckel held in the collection of the Lehmbruck Museum, inv. no. 477/1952, was acquired by the city of Duisburg in 1952 for DM 5,000.

Since 2004, restitution claims relating to this painting have been submitted to the Lehmbruck Museum by the heir of Alfred Hess. The claimant is represented by law firm Rowland & Associates of New York, with the lawyers Schink & Studzinski, Berlin, acting on their behalf.

Following a decision by the Board of Trustees of the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Foundation on December 20, 2013, an application for funding for provenance research was submitted to the former Bureau for Provenance Research in Berlin. Esther Tisa Francini, an art historian from Egg near Zurich, was commissioned to undertake the research.

The aim was to close gaps in the painting’s provenance and “portray the history of the work, particularly during the National Socialist era, and examine the restitution request (...) in terms of historical facts”.

In August 2015, Ms. Tisa Francini presented her report in which she concludes that “the sale [of the painting in 1936] and the subsequent acquisition by the Städtische Kunstmuseum Duisburg, today the Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg, is not regarded as a loss due to confiscation as a result of persecution”. The law firms Rowland & Associates, New York, and Schink & Studzinski, Berlin, were informed of the report. The lawyers have announced a full statement on the report by Ms. Tisa Francini.

(c) Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg