A few years ago, the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum held the highly acclaimed exhibition "Schattengalerie" (Shadow Gallery) to address the considerable wartime losses of the Aachen collection, with some works still being kept in the parts of Ukraine that have since been annexed by Russia. The museum is now endeavouring to systematically investigate the provenance of paintings and sculptures in its own collection for possible Nazi-related acquisitions and donations in order to reach an agreement with the rightful owners and acknowledge historical injustice. This initiative coincides with the current amendment to German restitution practice, which now provides for binding arbitration for all parties involved instead of an advisory commission. Reason enough for the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum to hold a series of public lectures on the complex issue of looted art and at the same time gain new insights into the history of its own museum.

Thu 28.11., 19.00 h

Why it is worthwhile to deal with the past (of works of art)

Lecture by Dr. Jasmin Hartmann, Bonn

Moderation: Till-Holger Borchert, Director of the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum

A work of art is taken out of an auction shortly before the sale, a museum is asked to return a painting, a private individual wants to bequeath a work of art that is linked to a difficult memory in the family.
What unites these incidents is the fact that the provenance of the artworks has direct and indirect effects on the present. The lecture invites us to recall the past of the 1930s and 1940s and at the same time to recognize the opportunities and perspectives it offers.
The Coordination Office for Provenance Research in NRW is dedicated to stories like these. It is the central point of contact and practical hub for all aspects of provenance research.

Dr. Jasmin Hartmann is an art historian and has been head of the Coordination Office for Provenance Research in North Rhine-Westphalia since 2022. Together with her team, she supports more than 1,000 museums, libraries and archives in all matters relating to provenance research. From 2016 to 2021, she set up the then newly founded Provenance Research Office of the state capital Düsseldorf - before that, she worked for various public institutions and projects in the field of provenance research. As a researcher, teacher and mentor in education and training, she has been familiar with the needs of different sectors and institutions for many years and is committed to a systematic, efficient and sustainable infrastructure in provenance research.

Thu 12.12., 19.00 h

Art protection and art acquisitions during National Socialism and the Second World War - The example of the Suermondt Museum in Aachen and its director Felix Kuetgens

Lecture by Dr. Elisabeth Furtwängler, Berlin

Moderation: Dr. René Rohrkamp, Director of the Aachen City Archive

Felix Kuetgens (1890 - 1976) was in charge of the Suermondt Museum from 1923 to 1955. During his tenure, a large number of works of art entered the museum's collections, partly in the form of donations and partly through purchases - the latter mostly on the regional and local art market. Stationed in occupied France during the war as a representative of military art protection, Kuetgens was responsible, among other things, for controlling the art market there in order to prevent the excessive export of cultural assets. Nevertheless, he used his position in Paris to make purchases for the Aachen collections and to support his colleagues from other German museums in handling their acquisitions. It remains to be clarified to what extent he was also involved in the machinations of what the Allies called the "Rhineland Gang" around the National Socialist head of cultural affairs Hans-Joachim Apffelstaedt, who wanted to locate and reclaim cultural property in the occupied western territories that was considered "Rhineland". The lecture will take a closer look at the ambivalent (acquisition) activities of the Aachen museum director.

Dr. Elisabeth Furtwängler works as a freelance art historian and provenance researcher for various museums and institutions, including the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin and the Museum Folkwang Essen. After working in the art trade, she worked as a research assistant at the University of Leipzig and completed her doctorate on artistic prints in post-war Paris. As co-director of the Franco-German cooperation project "Repertorium der Akteure auf dem französischen Kunstmarkt während der deutschen Besatzung, 1940-1945" (TU Berlin/INHA Paris), she primarily investigated the acquisition activities of German museums in occupied France and, together with Mattes Lammert, published the anthology "Kunst und Profit. Museums and the French Art Market in the Second World War".

Thu 16.01.2025, 19.00 h

Provenance research in Switzerland. The Kunstmuseum Basel as an example

Lecture by Dr. Tessa Friederike Rosebrock, Basel

Moderation: Prof. Dr. Alexander Markschies, RWTH Aachen University

It was the Swiss delegation at the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets in 1998 that prevented the enactment of a law to regulate outstanding property issues from the Second World War. As a neutral state not involved in hostilities, the country insisted on other, more flexible guidelines for dealing with cultural property seized and lost as a result of Nazi persecution. The Washington Principles were thus adopted as soft law, as a moral commitment. As a consequence, Switzerland did not have a national set of rules on how to proceed within the institutions holding cultural property, such as the German "Handreichung". Respecting the federal sovereignty of the cantons, the Swiss Federal Office of Culture began to provide funding for provenance research from 2016 and tied its distribution to certain requirements, but how museums proceed in the event of restitution requests or identified "lost property" in the collection is still the responsibility of the individual institutions. The lecture will show how successful provenance research is carried out at the Kunstmuseum Basel.

Dr. Tessa Friederike Rosebrock studied art history and modern German literature in Munich, Paris and Berlin. She gained practical museum experience at the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin; later she also worked on a scientific research project at the municipal museums in Strasbourg. Her dissertation on museum and exhibition policy in Germany and France during the "Third Reich" and in the immediate post-war period using the example of the art historian Kurt Martin (1899 - 1975) received several awards, most recently in 2017 with the prize of the "Salon du livre et de la revue d'art du Festival de l'histoire de l'art à Fontainebleau", which resulted in the translation of the book into French. From 2009 to 2020, she worked as a provenance researcher and curator at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. Since 2021, she has headed the Provenance Research Department at the Kunstmuseum Basel. She has curated several exhibitions on topics related to provenance research and is the author of numerous publications.