Injustice & Profit

Seemingly unsuspicious – for a long time, that was the role ascribed to Museums during the NS-period. More still  – they were considered “victims” because of the state-ordered removal of objects (“corrupted art”). But in 1998, the “Washington Conference on Nazi-Confiscated Art in the time of the Holocaust” realization set in: All museums and institutions preserving cultural possessions could be proven to have profited from the theft of cultural goods from Jewish ownership. The Badisches Landesmuseum is now facing up to its past.

The exhibition shows about 70 objects from its own collections: ceramics, painting, sculptures and textiles from antiquity to Art Nouveau. The objects presented for the first time were all illegally taken from their owners during the NS-period. They make clear the extent to which the Badisches Landesmuseum profited from the robbing of Jewish citizens. The focus is on the years 1933 to 1945. But two purchases from the 1970s are also presented.

Another theme of the exhibition is the function of the museum as a powerful visual backdrop. The former residence palace was at the center of political actions of the NS regime and the palace façade and the plaza before it were used for proclamations. Moreover, the configuration of the exhibition illustrates the task of the research into provenance: enlargements of newspaper excerpts, seizure lists and press photos explain the source and provide important hints in following the clues, which often proceeded over years. 

A publication will accompany the exhibition (Nünnerich-Asmus Verlag & Media, 127 pages with numerous illustrations, Museumshop 24 euros, German).

Provenance Research