Systematic investigation of the collection holdings of Schleswig-Holstein’s Museum of Art and Cultural History (acquisitions from 1946 to the present day)

Schleswig-Holstein State Museums Foundation Schloss Gottorf in Schleswig is the largest museum institution in Schleswig-Holstein. It was formed in 1999 from two state museums that had operated independently up to then: the Archaeological Museum (ALM) and the Museum of Art and Cultural History (LMKK). The Foundation was expanded in 2013 with the integration of the Ethnological Museum Schleswig (LMV) and the Open-Air Museum Molfsee.
In awareness of their responsibility to review their own collection history and restitute artworks confiscated as a result of persecution during the National Socialist dictatorship, Schleswig-Holstein State Museums Foundation is acting in accordance with the Washington Principles of 1998 and the Joint Declaration of 1999 and carrying out a systematic investigation of its holdings. New acquisitions made between 1933 and 1945 were examined in a long-term, two-year research project which ran until January 31, 2016. The project was funded by the former Bureau for Provenance Research. In a follow-up project funded by the German Lost Art Foundation since February 1, 2016, the new acquisitions made after 1946 are being examined.
The aim of the second provenance research project is to comprehensively examine the new acquisitions made by the Museum of Art and Cultural History from the end of the war to the present day, investigate their origin and seek out cultural goods confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution. The successful work carried out in the project on new acquisitions between 1933 and 1945 is thus being consistently pursued. In the medium term, the aim is to compile robust research findings on the museum’s entire collection holdings.
From 1946 to 2016, a total of 67,412 new acquisitions were inventoried at the Museum of Art and Cultural History (LMKK). These also included the folklore collections of the Ethnological Museum Schleswig up to 2013. This represents more than three quarters of all the inventory numbers assigned since the museum was founded—only around 21,000 inventory numbers were assigned during the period when the museum was based in Kiel (Thaulow Museum, 1878–1945), which was approximately the same length of time. These figures illustrate that an expansionary phase of accelerated collection development began for the Museum of Art and Cultural History at its new location at Schloss Gottorf after the war.
Traditional focal points of the collections are primarily handicrafts, folk art and the regional and cultural history of Schleswig-Holstein. The museum’s collecting activities have also focused more on fine art since the 1970s. In this period, an extensive collection of paintings was built up comprising works from the Classic Modernism period and from the 19th century—with a particular emphasis on Denmark—and also older Dutch paintings. The project is focusing on this stock in particular.

(c) Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseen Schloss Gottorf