Restitution dispute in Bavaria escalates: Munich denies

Two hundred or ninety-seven? Secret red list or mere claim shortly before the election? The "Süddeutsche Zeitung" reported several times that it had a leaked list of the Bavarian State Painting Collections (BStGS) of 900 pages from 2021, on which 200 paintings confiscated by the National Socialists in the collections' holdings were marked in red as looted art and another 800 were marked in orange under suspicion of being looted art. However, the BStGS has not restituted the works to the Jewish heirs for years. The general director of the collections, Bernhard Maaz, on the other hand, assures in a statement that this newspaper has received that the allegations are baseless. Neither does the alleged leaked list exist, nor have the works actually marked in red been definitively identified as looted art. There are "only" 97 paintings, the provenance and restitution circumstances of which are still unclear.

"The crucial false claim made by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, which is ultimately the basis of the entire article, is that an internal review has long since clearly identified the works marked in red on the list as looted art," according to the BStGS statement. It is also false that large parts of the list and the findings made there have not been made public. 53 of the works of art listed have already been reported to Lost Art and 82 of the pictures with their provenance chains are accessible to the public in the BStGS online collection. The impression conveyed in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" article that no restitutions have taken place so far is also false. In total, the BStGS has already carried out 25 restitutions, nine more works are currently pending restitution, four of which were approved in December 2024. The opposing side, however, accuses the BStGS of having only restituted marginal art to date, but of having deliberately delayed the large, multimillion-dollar cases.

The only thing that is certain at the moment is that the Free State of Bavaria and claimants and their lawyers have been arguing for years about the return of the same large works without any progress, includingPablo Picasso's "Madame Soler" (in which the BStGS rejects the looted art theory) and his bust of "Fernande", but also paintings by Max Beckmann (for example "Portrait of Quappi in Blue" from 1926) and at least two paintings by Paul Klee.

The prosecution used the heated phase of the federal election campaign to increase the pressure. Shortly before the election, Sanne Kurz, the Greens' cultural and media spokesperson in the Bavarian state parliament, called a press conference in which the CSU state government and in particular the Minister of Arts Markus Blume were harshly criticized. Less by the Greens, however, than by three lawyers who speak for the heirs of Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy ("Madame Soler"), the art dealer Alfred Flechtheim and the Lion brothers. The accusation is a lack of transparency, delay and thus duping of the descendants of the former Jewish owners.

Minister Blume has now responded to the revelation in the "Süddeutsche". He thanked the employees of the State Painting Collections, but also blamed their management for a lack of transparency. Lack of clarity about internal responsibilities also created room for misunderstandings. Blume announced the establishment of a "task force" to speed up the investigation and an increase in funding for provenance research (currently 2.5 positions in the BStGS for hundreds of paintings) to the amount of one million euros. To which MP Kurz countered: "The statement by State Minister Blume shows that he has his back against the wall. Now downplaying, downplaying and waiting it out can no longer be the maxim that has been used up to now. The responsibility for the Free State's failure to restitute Nazi-looted art lies with the ministry and thus with the minister. The minister knows the cases, he just has to pick up the phone. He makes the decisions about restitution." It is the old blame game as to who ultimately bears responsibility – the General Directorate or the “Art Department” as the smallest department of the Ministry of Art.

In any case, its minister Blume subsequently called on the state collections to strictly apply the standards of the German Lost Art Foundation when classifying works of art in the future: "All cases marked as red or orange according to these specifications would have to be published on the Lost Art database, where people can search for stolen cultural property. All works classified as most likely looted art should be subject to in-depth research as soon as possible. In addition, further results of provenance research should also be published. A binding timetable for the systematic assessment of all works of art that have not yet been examined should be in place by the end of 2026." This is precisely what can be achieved with the additional funding and positions for provenance research that he announced.

Sanne Kurz also called for the complete inclusion in the Lost Art database on Wednesday in a committee meeting of the Bavarian State Parliament. Further state funding of provenance research at the BStGS should also be tied to the condition that the results and interim results of this research are published regularly. As far as possible, records from art dealers, so-called dealer records, should also be published. Almost surprisingly, the committee agreed across party lines on the two slightly amended motions, in which the State Parliament is called upon to act quickly. The evening before, the MPs had received a motion from the CSU and the Free Voters calling for a binding timetable for the reorientation of provenance research. A "powerful provenance task force" with an external auditor and a team led by a renowned provenance researcher who is also outside the BStGS is to be responsible. The State Parliament must report on the current status by the summer recess at the latest. The motion was passed unanimously.

Even the committee chairman, Michael Piazolo, from the Free Voters, who are part of the governing party, criticized the slow pace of the investigation in the Free State and concluded with the words "This is not a page of glory." Meanwhile, several employees of the State Collections also fear that the reputation of the museums and of Bavaria will soon be irreparably and destructively damaged, which could have a concrete impact on future funding applications or loan requests. The reputation of the BStGS, which has also been highly valued as a scientific institution, will not be improved by long discussions, and major scientific sponsors such as the German Research Foundation (DFG) or private purchase supporters could distance themselves.

By summer, priorities are finally to be set and the urgent, serious cases to be resolved in a legally binding manner. It remains to be seen whether the hoped-for announcement of results will then be read out by Director General Maaz, who has come under heavy fire.