The Provenances of the Donations Leopold Ruzicka (1949), Nelly Bär (1968) & Walter Haefner (1973–1995)

Supported by the Federal Office of Culture, the project entitled ‘The provenances of the gifts by Leopold Ruzicka (1949), Nelly Bär (1968) & Walter Haefner (1973–1995)’ investigated the changes of ownership of the three central post-war gifts during the Nazi period from 1933 to 1945. It examined the 74 original, pre-1945 paintings, sculptures and drawings from the three gifts, documents them and reviews the art-historical corpus, as well as verifying, researching and supplementing their provenances. The project covered the 47 works that now make up the Old Master collection of Leopold Ruzicka, as well as the two prestigious gifts of French modernist works made by Nelly Bär and Walter Haefner, comprising 28 and 14 items respectively. These constitute the first examples of systematic research, documentation and publication relating to the extensive and pivotal accessions from private lenders and donors. (Text: Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025)