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Street Scenes and other Scenes from Berlin - Legal Issues in the Restitution of Art after the Third Reich
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2019
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The news that Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's painting “Berliner Strassenszene“ (Berlin Street Scene) will be up for sale in New York on November 8, 2006 has stirred up the international art scene for the past two months. The sale was announced shortly after the Berlin state senate had returned the painting to the heirs of its original owners, Jewish art collectors Alfred and Tekla Hess. For the past 26 years the piece had been hanging in the Brücke Museum in Berlin and formed a cornerstone of the museum's expressionist collection. Bought, from public funds, in 1980, for a little over $ 1 Million US, the painting is expected to sell this fall for $ 18 Million to $ 25 Million US.
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- Copyright © 2006 by German Law Journal GbR
References
1 Christie's Press Release from August 3, 2006; see also DW Staff, Kirchner Painting at Heart of Restitution Debate, Deutsche Welle, 19 September 2006, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,2140203,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1124-rdf; Vo, Lam Thuy, Politicians, Art experts voice criticism over Berlin's restitution of Kirchner painting, Associated Press, http://www.lawinfo.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/News.story/msgID/db876080-e85f-4fda-b85e-2ba01210d9c7; Hickley, Catherine and Sandler, Linca, Battle Rages Over Kirchner Picture Returned To Heir, Bloomberg, 28 August 2006, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&refer=muse&sid=a3aGCe1h.8c8 Google Scholar
2 Kimmelmann, Michael, Klimts Go to Market; Museums hold their breath, NEW YORK TIMES, 19 September 2006; Wefing, Heinrich, Was kostet ein Kirchner, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 22 August 2006, http://www.faz.net/s/Rub117C535CDF414415BB243B181B8B60AE/Doc~E72597F2E4E4C496F8A8D920FF2FA12AA~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html Google Scholar
3 According to Rose-Marie Gropp, the gift expressed the family's gratitude to Holzinger for saving part of Hagemann's art collection from the Nazis by storing them in the museum's basement. Hagemann's collection contained many works considered “degenerate” by the Nazis, see Ein Bild für Christie's, in: FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG 16 August 2006.Google Scholar
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5 Stoelzl, Christoph, former state culture senator of Berlin said this in the public expert hearing in front of the Berlin Parliament on 28 August 2006; see also, Press Release, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner archive in Switzerland, and Museum, Brücke, Laienspieler im Berliner Kultursenat, (18 August 2006) available at http://www.artnet.de/magazine/sonder/pdf/20060813Presseerklaerung.pdf; Letters from Bernd Schultz to the Berlin Senate available at http://www.artnet.de/magazine/sonder/pdf/KIRCHNERSKANDAL11aug2006.pdf Google Scholar
6 The decision was reached at the Board Meeting on 5 September 2006 and announced publicly at a press conference the next day; see also Eller, Thomas, Was soll man darauf antworten? Artnet, 7 September 2006, available at, http://www.artnet.de/magazine/news/eller/eller09–07–06.asp Google Scholar
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20 Press Release, Hess Family, Hess Heirs Commend Berlin For Returning Kirchner Paintin, (18 August 2006), available at, http://www.mmdnewswire.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=517 Google Scholar
21 See, for example a letter Tekla Hess wrote to the gallery owner Ferdinand Möller in 1953 available at, http://www.artnet.de/magazine/sonder/pdf/20060906briefhess.pdf. This letter indicates that many works of the Hess collection were in fact stored thourgh the war in the basement of the Cologne Art Association. It is argued that this fact makes it highly unlikely that coercion was exercised – at least with regard to those works – because had the Gestapo demanded them back to Germany, they would have included them in the exhibition “Degenerate Art”, see e.g. Ludwig v. Pufendorfs arguments reported in Eller, Thomas, Was soll man darauf antworten? Artnet, 7 September 2006, available at, http://www.artnet.de/magazine/news/eller/eller09–07–06.asp Google Scholar
22 There are exceptions especially for artworks. For some of the problems in US law, see Youngblood-Reyhan, Patricia, A Chaotic Palette: Conflict of Laws in Litigation Between Original Owners and Good-Faith Purchasers of Stolen Art, 50 Duke L.J. 955 (2001); with specific reference to Nazi-looted artwork, see Kunze, Hans Henning, Restitution “Entarteter Kunst”. Sachenrecht und IPR (2000).Google Scholar
23 See, for example, Winkworth v. Christie Manson & Woods Ltd et al. [1981] Ch. 496.Google Scholar
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31 These arguments were brought forward by Henze during the parliamentary hearing in the Berlin Parliament on August 28, 2006.Google Scholar
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33 See, Republic of Austria v. Altmann, 541 U.S. 677 (2004). The parties later agreed on arbitration; the arbitrator held for the Boch Bauer heirs; an Enlish translation of the holding is available at. http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=ahjqm32fn79x_bad4zpvm4j253. For an account by their lawyer, see Schoenberg, E. Ranold, Whose Art is it Anyway, in Holocaust Restitution: Perspectives on the Litigation and its Legacy 288 (Michael J. Bazyler/Roger Alford eds., 2006).Google Scholar
34 Rauterberg, Hanno: Werden die Museen geplündert?, Die Zeit, 24 August 2006, available at, http://www.zeit.de/2006/35/Spitze35.Google Scholar
35 See also Michael Kimmelmann: Klimts go to Market; Museums Hold Their Breath, New York Times, 19 September 2006, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/arts/design/19kimm.html?_r=2&ref=arts&oref=slogin&oref=slogin Google Scholar
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