Exhibition on the Robbery of the Jewish Population During the Nazi Era

Der Standard, June 6, 2024

German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000223218/ausstellung-ueber-die-beraubung-der-juedischen-bevoelkerung-in-der-ns-zeit

System of enrichment: the double exhibition “Robbery”, which sees itself as a temporary memorial, is running in the Vienna Museum and the Jewish Museum

Olga Kronsteiner

It is not just any Beethoven bust whose days in the Vienna Museum's collection are numbered. It was the only one made by Franz Klein in 1812 after a life mask of the composer and served as a model for later depictions. Until the National Socialists seized power, it belonged to Wilhelm Kux, a banker with good connections to Red Vienna.

In his private life, he was passionate about music: on the board of directors of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and as a collector of string instruments, autographs and works of art. He was able to save most of his assets when he fled to Switzerland. But not the Beethoven bust, which was seized by the Nazi authorities and entered in the “Register of Nationally Valuable Works of Art.” Wilhelm Kux had no choice but to sell the bust to the municipal collections.

“Packing” and “unpacking”

This is one of twelve cases that exemplify the different forms of appropriation in a double exhibition: In twelve video installations each, the curators deal with the process of robbery as an act of “packing” in the Museum am Judenplatz (curator: Hannes Sulzenbacher) and that of incorporation as “unpacking” in the Wien Museum (curator: Gerhard Milchram).

The double exhibition is called Raub, although “Gier” would probably have been a more appropriate alternative, as Sulzenbacher notes. In any case, considering the historical circumstances, in which a system of enrichment was established even before the official orchestration, which not only benefited museums - but also neighbors who helped themselves to the inventory of refugees' homes, keeping some and selling others in the “Pfandl.”

In economic terms, the Dorotheum was even one of the biggest profiteers - with the forced auctions of Jewish women's jewelry, some of which were auctioned off directly in apartments. Not to mention all the art auctions that were acquired via the in-house appraisers, who had previously drawn up the appraisals for the declaration of assets.

Documents that could later have provided information about the origin of supposedly anonymous loot were destroyed until shortly before the auction house was privatized in 2001. The legally prescribed retention period had long since expired. In the end, 32 million dollars from the privatization proceeds flowed into the compensation fund.

Between 1938 and 1945, the Municipal Collections had acquired 1478 objects from the Dorotheum alone, the origin of most of which is still unclear even after 25 years of systematic provenance research since 1999: the previous owners of exactly 1205 objects are unknown.

Successful search for heirs

This was not the case with the Beethoven bust mentioned at the beginning, which Wilhelm Kux had to sell for 3000 Reichsmarks. To the delight of the then director of the Städtische Sammlungen, who was worried about competition, specifically from the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, which would probably “do everything in its power to get hold of this precious piece”.

In 2008, the Vienna Restitution Commission declared the bust “eligible for restitution”. The search for an heir proved difficult and a legal successor was not found until 2023. “The handover of the bust is currently being prepared”, as the exhibition catalog states. (Olga Kronsteiner, 6.6.2024)

Until 27.10.

“Robbery” at the Wien Museum

“Robbery” at the Jewish Museum

Previous
Previous

New Book Presented: Regular Guests at Semmering

Next
Next

“Robbery:” Jewish Expropriation in a Video Show