Gurlitt Provenance Research project identifies four works of Nazi-confiscated art

Four draw­ings by the artists Charles Do­minique Joseph Eisen, Au­gustin de Saint-Aubin and Anne Val­lay­er-Coster have been iden­ti­fied as Nazi-con­fis­cat­ed art by the Gurlitt Prove­nance Re­search project. Their ori­gins can be traced back to the Jew­ish fam­i­ly Deutsch de la Meur­the in Paris, in whose pri­vate home they were hang­ing. The house was con­fis­cat­ed dur­ing the Na­tion­al So­cial­ist oc­cu­pa­tion. Af­ter the end of the war, the fam­i­ly filed a loss re­port that in­clud­ed the draw­ings. In the con­text of the “Kun­st­fund Gurlitt” (Gurlitt Art Trove), it be­came known that these four works, along with 14 oth­er pieces, were in pos­ses­sion of Beni­ta Re­nate Gurlitt (1935–2012). As the works were part of Hilde­brand Gurlitt’s art col­lec­tion and be­cause of their sig­nif­i­cance for com­ing to terms with the Na­tion­al So­cial­ist art theft, they were in­clud­ed in the re­search of the Gurlitt Prove­nance Re­search project and pub­lished in the Lost Art Database of the Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion in Ju­ly 2017. The cur­rent own­er has ac­knowl­edged the Wash­ing­ton Prin­ci­ples and de­cid­ed in fa­vor of the resti­tu­tion of Nazi-con­fis­cat­ed art. The works are on dis­play as part of the “Be­stand­sauf­nahme Gurlitt” ex­hib­it at the Gropius Bau in Berlin from Septem­ber 14, 2018 un­til Jan­uary 7, 2019. The de­scen­dants of the Deutsch de la Meur­the fam­i­ly have been con­tact­ed, and it is their wish that the works be pre­sent­ed.

State Min­is­ter of Cul­ture Prof. Moni­ka Grüt­ters ex­plains, “The iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of four more works as Nazi-con­fis­cat­ed art is con­vinc­ing proof of how im­por­tant com­pre­hen­sive, de­tailed and of­ten pro­tract­ed prove­nance re­search is. I am al­so very grate­ful to the own­er of the pieces for ad­her­ing to the Wash­ing­ton Prin­ci­ples as a pri­vate per­son and agree­ing to the resti­tu­tion of Nazi-con­fis­cat­ed art. It is an im­por­tant step to­ward com­ing to terms with the NS art theft that pri­vate per­sons al­so ac­cept their re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and have their col­lec­tions ex­am­ined.”

Grüt­ters con­tin­ues, “It is good that these works can now be shown in the ‘Be­stand­sauf­nahme Gurlitt’ ex­hib­it in the Gropius Bau in Berlin start­ing Septem­ber 14. It is an im­por­tant step to show due re­spect for the fate of the Jew­ish fam­i­ly Deutsch de la Meur­the, from whom the works were tak­en.”

The backs of two of the draw­ings by the artist Charles Eisen bear lot num­bers of an auc­tion (Vente Léon De­cloux, Hô­tel Drouot, Paris, Febru­ary 14–15, 1898, Lot 57 and 58), where Hen­ri Deutsch de la Meur­the ac­quired them. The draw­ings by Aubin and Val­lay­er-Coster were pur­chased one year lat­er at an­oth­er auc­tion (Vente Mühlbach­er, Ga­lerie Georges Pe­tit, Paris, May 15, 1899, Lot 288 and 299). The French in­dus­tri­al­ist Hen­ry Deutsch de la Meur­the (1846–1919) is known his­tor­i­cal­ly as a sup­port­er of ear­ly avi­a­tion. The fam­i­ly’s house on Place des États-Unis in Paris was used by the Na­tion­al So­cial­ist “Di­en­st­stelle West­en” (West­ern De­part­ment) as a de­pot for works of art that had been amassed in con­fis­ca­tions of the so-called “Mö­bel-Ak­tion”, a large loot­ing op­er­a­tion.

For de­tailed in­for­ma­tion about the works and their his­to­ries, please re­fer to the an­nex and the links to the Lost Art Database of the Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion.

The draw­ings are part of the “Be­stand­sauf­nahme Gurlitt. Ein Kun­sthändler im Na­tion­al­sozial­is­mus” (Gurlitt: Sta­tus Re­port. An Art Deal­er in Nazi Ger­many) ex­hib­it, pre­sent­ed by the Bun­deskun­sthalle, Bonn, and the Kun­st­mu­se­um Bern at the Gropius Bau in Berlin from Septem­ber 14, 2018 un­til Jan­uary 7, 2019.

Con­tact:

For ques­tions about con­tent or to re­quest pho­tos, please con­tact:

Freya Paschen, Spokeswom­an
Deutsches Zen­trum Kul­turgutver­luste
Stiftung bürg­er­lichen Rechts
Hum­boldt­straße 12 | D-39112 Magde­burg

Phone: +49 (0) 391 727 763 24
Fax: +49 (0) 391 727 763 6
presse@kul­turgutver­luste.de
www.kul­turgutver­luste.de

Note for vi­su­al me­dia:
If you are in­ter­est­ed in an on-site ap­point­ment at the ex­hib­it, please con­tact di­rect­ly:

Sven Bergmann, Spokesman
Kun­st- und Ausstel­lung­shalle der Bun­desre­pub­lik Deutsch­land GmbH
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 4, D-53113 Bonn

Phone +49 (0) 228 9171 205
Fax +49 (0) 228 9171 211
Mo­bile +49 49 (0) 171 7426397
bergmann@bun­deskun­sthalle.de

Overview of the works in Lost Art: http://www.lostart.de/Webs/DE/Daten­bank/Suche/Such­eS­im­pel­Ergeb­nis.html?cms_param=SUCHE_ID%3D26483680

Work 1
O le bon tems que la mois­son! On est en­sem­ble sans façon (Tem­plate for an il­lus­tra­tion en­grav­ing for the com­e­dy “Les Moisson­neurs” by Charles Si­mon F[…])
Artist/cre­ator: Eisen, Charles Do­minique Joseph
Type of work: Draw­ing
Ma­te­ri­al/tech­nique: Ink pen: Pa­per/drawn, washed
Height: 26.80 cm Width: 20.20 cm
De­scrip­tion: […]out: “O le bon temps que la mois­son! On est en­sem­ble[…]
Col­lec­tion: Kon­vo­lut Süd­deutsch­land
Prove­nance: […]bru­ar 1898, Lot 57 Hen­ri Deutsch de la Meur­the, Paris and Angervil­liers[…]ch In­her­it­ed by Mar­guerite Deutsch de la Meur­the, Paris and Angervil­liers[…]

Lost Art ID: 568263

Work 2
Pourquoy la cha­griner? Elle est jolie et sage [...] (Tem­plate for an il­lus­tra­tion en­grav­ing for the com­e­dy “Les Moisson­neurs” by Charles Sim[…])
Artist/cre­ator: Eisen, Charles Do­minique Joseph
Type of work: Draw­ing
Ma­te­ri­al/tech­nique: Ink pen: Pa­per/drawn, washed
Height: 26.90 cm Width: 20.10 cm
De­scrip­tion: […] Passep­a­rtout: “Pourquoi la cha­griner? Elle est joli[…]
Col­lec­tion: Kon­vo­lut Süd­deutsch­land
Prove­nance: […]bru­ar 1898, Lot 58 Hen­ri Deutsch de la Meur­the, Paris and Angervil­liers[…]ch In­her­it­ed by Mar­guerite Deutsch de la Meur­the, Paris and Angervil­liers[…]
Lost Art ID: 568264

Work 3
Por­trait de femme en pro­fil/Por­trait of a la­dy in pro­file
Artist/cre­ator: Saint-Aubin, Au­gustin
Type of work: Draw­ing
Ma­te­ri­al/tech­nique: Pen­cil and san­guine: Pa­per/drawn
Di­am­e­ter: 10.00 cm
Col­lec­tion: Kon­vo­lut Süd­deutsch­land
Prove­nance: […] May 1899, Lot 288 Hen­ri Deutsch de la Meur­the, Paris and Angervil­liers[…]ch In­her­it­ed by Mar­guerite Deutsch de la Meur­the, Paris and Angervil­liers[…]
Lost Art ID: 568268

Work 4
Self por­trait
Artist/cre­ator: Val­lay­er-Coster, Anne
Type of work: Draw­ing
Ma­te­ri­al/tech­nique: Char­coal, pen­cil, san­guine, col­ored pen­cil: Pa­per/drawn
Di­am­e­ter: 32.30 cm
Col­lec­tion: Kon­vo­lut Süd­deutsch­land
Prove­nance: […] May 1899, Lot 288 Hen­ri Deutsch de la Meur­the, Paris and Angervil­liers[…]ch In­her­it­ed by Mar­guerite Deutsch de la Meur­the, Paris and Angervil­liers[…]

Lost Art ID: 568269