Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and the Getty: a Continuing Partnership

STAATLICHE KUNSTSAMMLUNGEN DRESDEN AND THE GETTY: A CONTINUING PARTNERSHIP

Selected Collaborative Projects Past, Present, and Future

In 1995, the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden began an informal partnership that has resulted in numerous important collaborations over the past decade with many more initiatives planned for the future. The four programs of the Trust have provided their expertise and resources to Dresden for conservation, research, grants, and publications. More recently the institutions have embarked on a series of collaborative exhibitions, bringing important works of art to Los Angeles from Dresden and providing visitors with new perspectives on the collections of both institutions. Highlights of the collaborative exhibitions, conservation endeavors, and foundation grants include:

J. Paul Getty Museum Exhibitions:

• A Royal Menagerie: Meissen Porcelain Animals (J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center, 2001-02)

• From Caspar David Friedrich to Gerhard Richter: German Paintings from Dresden (J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center, 2006-07)

• The Herculaneum Women and the Origins of Archaeology – changing exhibition and permanent gallery installation (J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Villa, 2007-08)

• Bolognese Baroque Paintings in Dresden and Los Angeles (working title); Getty and Dresden venues (2008-09)

Conservation:

• The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) provided expertise and analysis for the reinstallation of the historic Green Vault in the Dresden residence palace (1998-2003)

• Andrea Mantegna’s Holy Family (c. 1485; tempera and oil on canvas) from the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister was treated by Dresden conservator Christoph Schölzel working for three months with the Getty Museum’s paintings conservation

-more-

Page 2

department. After its treatment the painting was exhibited at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (2001-02)

• GCI colleagues provided immediate support after the Dresden flood of 2002, which dramatically affected the museums—short-term response planning and development of a new security plan for the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen (2002)

• Two Dresden paintings by Canaletto, Venice: the Grand Canal and Venice: at the mouth of the Grand Canal (1722/23; oil on canvas) received conservation treatment by Dresden conservator Axel Börner working with the Getty Museum’s paintings conservation department over four months. The works were then exhibited at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (2006-07)

• Conservation and reintegration of the Skulpturensammlung’s monumental Roman statue “Antinous-Bacchus” at the Getty Museum’s antiquities conservation laboratories. Dresden conservators will take part in the treatment. Followed by a scholarly workshop

Selected Getty Foundation Grants:

• For the conservation of 18 large-scale historical portraits in the Rüstkammer collections (2001)

• For the research project Art Transfer: A Forum for the Research of German–Russian Cultural Relations since the Seventeenth Century, involving museum and university scholars from Dresden, St. Petersburg, and Moscow (2004)

• For the publication of the comprehensive two-volume Catalogue of the Collection of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (2005)