International Newsletter. No. 8. May 2003 Spoils of War. No. 8. May 2003 2 Imprint: Editorial Board: Bart Eeman, István Fodor, Michael M. Franz, Ekaterina Genieva, Wojciech Kowalski, Jacques Lust, Isabelle le Masne de Chermont, Anne Webber. Editor: Dr. Michael M. Franz. Technical assistance and translation: Svea Janner, Yvonne Sommermeyer. Editorial address: Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste City-Carré Kantstraße 5 39104 Magdeburg Phone: 0049 - 391 – 544 87 09 Fax: 0049 - 391 – 53 53 96 33 E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.lostart.de Addresses of the members of the Editorial Board: •Bart Eeman, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Directorate Economic Relations, Rue Gen Leman 60, 1040 Brussels, Belgium, phone: 0032/2065897, fax: 0032/25140389. •István Fodor, Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum, Múzeum körni 14-16, 1088 Budapest, Hungary, phone: 36/1/3184259, fax: 36/1/3382/673. e-mail: [email protected]. •Michael M. Franz, Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste, City Carré, Kantstrasse 5, 39104 Magdeburg, Germany, phone: 0049/391/5448709, fax: 0049/391/53539633, e-mail: [email protected] anhalt.de. •Ekaterina Genieva, All Russia State Library for Foreign Literature Moscow, Nikolojamskaja Street 1, 109 189 Moscow, Russia, phone: 7/095/915 3621, fax: 7/095/915 3637, e-mail: [email protected]. •Wojciech Kowalski, University of Silesia, Department of Intellectual and Cultural Property Law, ul. Bankowa 8, 40 007 Katowice, Poland, phone/fax: 48/32/517104, phone: 48/32/588211, fax: 48/32/599188; e-mail: [email protected]. •Jacques Lust, Service of the Prime Minister, Rue du Musee 9, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, phone: 0032/475204462, fax: 0032/25083232, email: [email protected]. •Isabelle le Masne de Chermont, Chef du bureau des affaires juridiques et générales direction des musées de France, 6 rue des Pyramides, 75041 Paris Cedex 01, France, phone: 00/140205266, fax: 00/140205169, email: [email protected]. •Anne Webber, Central Registry of Information on Looted Cultural Property 1933-1945, 76 Gloucester Place, London, W1U 6HJ, Great Britain, phone: 0044/2074873401, fax: 0044/2074874211, email: [email protected]. Editorial Note: The contributions in this Newsletter deal with all kinds of aspects on looted art. Due to the historical and political sensibility of this topic, and irrespective of our gratitude towards all authors, we allow ourselves to emphasise the fact that all contributions reflect exclusively the authors' personal opinion. Spoils of War. No. 8. May 2003 3 Contents: Editorial 5 Special Reports Report on the search for cultural assets taken away as a result of NS-persecution - About a choice of foreign possession in the engraving cabinet of the State Art Collections Dresden by Ursula Köhn 6 The European Union and looted art – Will EP Initiative turn out to be major breakthrough? by Tim Schröder 18 A short comment on two anthologies by Michael Franz 21 The part and the whole – aspects of private commitment to the issue of lost cultural assets by Antje Contius 23 Library Losses Books of German provenance in Russian libraries by Regine Dehnel 25 Country Reports Finland by Tiina Koivulahti with Maarit Hakkarainen 44 Germany by Michael Franz 47 Poland by Nawojka Cieślińska-Lobkowicz; Piotr Kosiewski 48 Russia by A. V. Kibovskij; Dmitrieva Karina Aleksandrovna 56 Spoils of War. No. 8. May 2003 4 Switzerland by Esther Tisa Francini 60 Ukraine by Anatoli Volga 64 Archival Reports Bach is back in Berlin: The return of the Sing-Akademie Archive from Ukraine in the context of displaced cultural treasures and restitution politics by Patricia K. Grimsted 67 Sales records of the Valentine Gallery by Julia May Boddewyn 104 Restitutions The bell of Staraja Russa by Holger Walter 105 Return of books to the Karl Marx House Trier by Annette Gerlach 106 The Sommerguth case by Joel Levi 108 Bibliography by Jürgen Krüger 110 Spoils of War. No. 8. May 2003 5 Spoils of War International Newsletter. No. 8 (May 2003) Editorial With this eighth issue of "Spoils of War", the Editorial Board presents to you after the last published Special Edition on the Magdeburg Conference 2001 again a number of international contributions dealing with selected topics regarding cultural losses due to World War II. Thereby, this issue, gathering articles by authors from seven states, shows the still actual meaning of the problems also more than 58 years after the end of World War II. As a consequence, it also demonstrates the international need of a publication as Spoils of War is: Only with such a wide range of information and perspective, the basis for a discussion not only within experts but also - and perhaps: especially - within the public opinion can be build. Against this background, the Editorial Board would like to thank each of the authors you will find in this issue for their fine support and their efforts regarding their articles. This eighth issue has been made possible only through the help and assistance of Ms Janner and Ms Sommermeyer at the Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste in Magdeburg. As with regard to the last issues of Spoils of War, als this one would not have been realized neither in the form as it is available now nor in time. As the last issues, also this one will be available also on the official website of the Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste at www.lostart.de. Furthermore, it will be available in its Russian translation on the website of the Russian Editorial Board part, the All Russia State Library for Foreign Literature, at http://spoils.libfl.ru. With regard to the future of Spoils of War and the above mentioned need of information, please feel free to send comments, contributions, and suggestions to the Editorial Board member of your choice. EEMAN, Bart, Brussels FODOR, Istvan, Budapest FRANZ, Michael, Magdeburg GENIEVA, Ekaterina, Moscow KOWALSKI, Wojciech, Katowice LUST, Jacques, Brussels MASNE DE CHERMONT, Isabelle le, Paris WEBBER, Anne, London Spoils of War. No. 8. May 2003 6 Special Reports Report on the search for cultural assets taken away as a result of NS-persecution - About a choice of foreign possession in the engraving cabinet of the State Art Collections Dresden Introduction The order to investigate the provenance of cultural assets taken away as a result of NS-persecution in the State Art Collections Dresden (SKD) is based on the "Common declaration of the federal government, the federal states and the municipal organizations for the location and for the return of cultural assets taken away as a result of NS-persecution, particularly of Jewish possession" from December, 1999 as a result of the Washington conference in 1998. In the SKD, the origin shall be clarified as a main point of these provenance searches, first of sketches and print graphics of the so-called packages of Linz in the engraving cabinet (K-K). Different points lead to the assumption that these could be works of art which were meant for the "Leader's museum" planned by Hitler in Linz. The evaluation of the previous searches was finished with research state of December 30, 2001. The work on the available file copies could not be evaluated yet on account of the wide range. The manager's conference of the SKD decided after the model of the report for a continuation of the provenance research within the framework of the processing of the history of the Dresden Art Collections. With a research project to be accompanied by the SKD an art-historical examination of the period in question shall take place. On the part of the Culture Foundation of the federal states financial support was signalised. Contents of this report: I. On the method of approach II. On the situation of the files in the archives III. On the circle of acquaintances of the partners participating in the special order Linz in Dresden IV. Relocation as a result of the war, restitution and "foreign possession" – defining of the notion V. On the state of the search in the separate collections VI. On knowledge from files in the archive of the central management VII. Discoveries and assumptions VIII. Evaluation Spoils of War. No. 8. May 2003 7 IX. On future tasks X. Summary I. On the method of approach At the beginning (December, 2000) the task was to familiarize oneself with the subject on the basis of the previous general research state by corresponding literature study. Further it was required to work out the facts from administration material, personal files among other things written property in the archives, on the one hand of the separate museums as well as of the central management of the State Art Collections Dresden (SKD) on the other hand, in order to light up the background of the relations of that time and to gain new knowledge. The limitation of the order to firstly investigate the provenance of sketches and print graphics in the K-K required to get an overview about the controls of stock sporadically carried out since 1945. This way it became visible that not necessarily a comparison of knowledge of each former control had been carried out. Incidentally it appeared that the research on these questions can hardly lead to unambiguous or reliable statements because of the serious gaps in stock resulting in war losses of files. Therefore the present report gives a subject state generally on the knowledge and shows directions for further researches. II. On the situation of the files in the archives The Main State Archive Dresden informs after inquiry that the existing files are from 1933 to 1945, mainly about organizational affairs. Up to now also in the Municipal Archive and from the "Steueraltaktenarchiv" (Archive on old tax files) of the tax office no essential knowledge was to be gained.