Provenance research: Paul Adolf Seehaus, “Rotierender Leuchtturm”

At an auction at Kunstkabinett Ketterer, Stuttgart, in 1949, the Kunstmuseum Bonn acquired the 1913 painting “Leuchtturm mit rotierenden Strahlen” (Lighthouse with Rotating Beam) (oil on canvas, 49 x 55.5 cm) by Paul Adolf Seehaus (1891–1918). It is thus one of the Kunstmuseum Bonn’s earliest acquisitions in the field of Rhenish Expressionism, a focal point of the museum’s collection.

The heirs of Alfred Flechtheim had submitted a restitution request to the museum in September 2009. The heirs asserted that the painting had still belonged to Alfred Flechtheim at the beginning of the 1930s. When Galerie Flechtheim was taken over by Alex Vömel, a former employee of the gallery, Vömel had unlawfully appropriated the painting. The painting probably remained in Vömel’s possession until 1949, when it was auctioned by Ketterer.

Kunstmuseum Bonn’s documentation on the painting provides no information about its history during the crucial years after the National Socialists took power. Funded by the Bureau for Provenance Research in Berlin, in 2010 the Kunstmuseum Bonn commissioned Dr. Vanessa-Maria Voigt to undertake provenance research on the painting by Paul Adolf Seehaus. The facts were collated and documented as far as possible in expert reports. Key questions, e.g. which works were still in Flechtheim’s possession after the Nazis took power on January 30, 1933, and precisely how the takeover of Galerie Flechtheim by Alex Vömel was accomplished, could not be answered due to a lack of data. Voigt concludes that: “It has not been possible to conclusively determine the provenance of the painting by Paul Adolf Seehaus due to a lack of documents.”

Loss of the painting as a result of Nazi persecution could therefore not be demonstrated, but at the same time it could not be ruled out either, particularly in view of the persecution suffered by Flechtheim and his emigration from Germany in 1933. The city of Bonn and Flechtheim’s heirs worked together to reach a fair and just solution in line with the Joint Declaration of the German federal government, the German states and the leading municipal associations. In an amicable settlement with the Kunstmuseum Bonn in April 2012, Flechtheim’s heirs were paid a sum corresponding to half the estimated value of the painting as compensation. The painting remained in Bonn as the property of the Kunstmuseum Bonn. The written description accompanying the painting in the collection recounts its eventful history.

(c) Kunstmuseum Bonn