The Ugly Provenance of Kunsthaus Zrich’s Collection – frieze.com
Posted By admin on February 9, 2022
At the end of December last year, Swiss painter Miriam Cahn made headlines by announcing that she intended to withdraw her work from Kunsthaus Zrich, Switzerlands largest art museum. In an open letter to the Swiss-Jewish journal Tacheles, Cahn accused the museum of historical whitewashing, and in an interview with Swiss Radio and Television (SRF) stated: Ive had enough! Im a Jew and thats why I want to withdraw my works from the Kunsthaus. The latest chapter in what looks set to grow into Switzerlands largest museological scandal to date, Cahns protest is directed against the Kuntshauss revisionist handling of the art collection of industrialist Emil Bhrle,a German emigre to Switzerland who is known to have sold weapons to the Nazis, to have acquired art works stolen from Jewish owners, and whose company profited from forced labour by Prisoners of a women's concentration camp in Nazi-Germany.
Kunsthaus Zurich, Bhrle Collection, 2021. Courtesy and photograph:Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zrich
The controversy first arose in 2019, when the Kuntshaus and Zurichs city government negotiated the long-term loan (for the next 20 years) of around 200 works from the Foundation E.G. Bhrle Collection, including paintings by Paul Czanne, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Pablo Picasso. Fuelled by the pragmatic logic of civic marketing, the hope was that these impressive loans would help catapult Zurichs Kunsthaus into the top flight of international art museums. Having accepted Bhrles works, the Kunsthaus downplayed his close links to the Nazis. Before the opening in October 2021 of the Kunsthauss 175million extension a building designed by architect David Chipperfield that now houses the Bhrle works the museum's director, Christoph Becker, said in an interview with Swiss newspaper NZZ that a collection could not be used as a vehicle to portray historical facts. In a similar vein, Lukas Gloor, former director of the Bhrle Foundation, noted in an interview with Blickin November 2021 that it was not acceptable for the collection to be turned into a memorial to Nazi persecution, adding it doesnt do justice to the pictures. However, the harder those responsible try to play down the obvious reality that the work in Bhrles collection is tainted, the clearer it becomes that this issue remains an enormous and very deliberate blind spot for Kunsthaus Zrich.
Christoph Becker, director Kunsthaus Zrich, 2021. Courtesy and photograph:Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zurich
Before he moved to Switzerland in 1924, Bhrle was a member of the right-wing paramilitary group Freikorps, and personally involved in the bloody suppression of the anti-monarchist November Revolution that was triggered by Germany's military defeat in World War I. It was Switzerland's official (and yet in reality ambiguous) neutrality that was the key to Bhrle's business success during World War II at times he was even the countrys richest man. In 1943, the BBC referred to Bhrles manufacturing plant in Zrich as Germanys greatest bomb-free arms factory. His fortune during the war was added to by profiteering from Nazi forced labour: Bhrle received royalties from a German company for the production of weapons in a factory in Velten, north of Berlin a place where women prisoners from the Ravensbrck concentration camp worked as slaves under SS guard.
Bhrle began collecting art in 1936 and over the next two decades invested a total of 40 million Swiss francs, acquiring around 600 works. When aggressive, systematic plundering of Jewish-owned collections in occupied France began in the summer of 1940 and many of the stolen art works were flushed onto the European market, Bhrle was among those to benefit. Bhrle made his first 16 purchases on the Paris art market during the occupation, when Jewish gallerists and collectors were having works confiscated, confirms a 2020 report by Zrich University. Of the 93 artworks he bought between 1941 and 1945, 13 were classified as looted art after the war. After a number of restitution proceedings Bhrle was obliged to return all 13 of these stolen paintings to their rightful owners at the end of the 1940s, but he later bought nine of them back again, thus legalizing his dubious assets.
Dmitri Kessel, Emil Buhrle in his collection at Zollikerstrasse, June, 1954. Getty Images
This sinister nexus of art, money and violence is lucidly described in historian and journalist Erich Kellers recent book Das kontaminierte Museum ('The Contaminated Museum', 2021):
On the one hand, the origins of the money used to build the collection, and on the other the origins of a still unknown number of objects it contains. This constitutes an extraordinary circularity: money derived from military deals at odds with Switzerlands neutral status, some of them illegal, being used to buy art objects that only came onto the market as a result of the Nazis anti-Semitic policies of expropriation and persecution.
In the book, Keller describes how even today the Bhrle Foundation maintains a systematic silence concerning the Jewish family background of the previous owners of works in their collection: The Nazi policy of persecuting and robbing Jews is completely disregarded, with the aim of making all of the transactions involved appear unsuspicious. And indeed, the provenance of Bhrle's works has still not been examined by independent experts. The history of these paintings, presented in the Kunsthauss sparkling new galleries, remains in the dark. Over many years, attempts to establish the provenance of works in the Bhrle collection have encountered obstacles, as in 2001 when the foundation told a team of researchers that its own archive had been destroyed ten years later, as if by magic, the documents reappeared (and then recently, moved to the Kunsthaus to join Bhrle's art works).
The key demands of critics such as Swiss artist Gina Fischli, who launched the online appeal Against Looted Art in the Kunsthaus Zrich, are the independent clarification of provenance, full publication of the loan agreement between the Bhrle Foundation and Kunsthaus Zrich and a programme of unflinching historical contextualization. In a recent interview with Swiss newspaper WOZ, Zrich city councillor Richard Wolff raised an idea that has been circulating for some time: that a real canon be installed at Kunsthaus Zrich next to works from the Bhrle collection, to make its ties to the weapon industry immediately visible for visitors.
Kunsthaus Zrich, Chipperfield extension, central hall with staircase, 2021. Courtesy: Kunsthaus Zrich; photograph: Juliet Haller, Office for Urban Development, Zurich
Signed in 2009 by 47 countries, including Switzerland, the Terezin Declaration states that:
Noting the importance of restituting communal and individual immovable property that belonged to the victims of the Holocaust (Shoah) and other victims of Nazi persecution, the participating states urge that every effort be made to rectify the consequences of wrongful property seizures, such as confiscations, forced sales and sales under duress of property, which were part of the persecution of these innocent people and groups, the vast majority of whom died heirless.
It will be interesting to see how seriously the Kunsthaus Zrich takes these principles, moving forward. Other museums in Switzerland have already shown that they do take them seriously. For example, in December 2021, following several years of research work, Kunstmuseum Bern announced that it will return two 1922 watercolours by Otto Dix to the descendants of the Jewish collectors Dr Ismar Littmann and Dr Paul Schaefer, who rightfully owned the works. Kunsthaus Zrich should take responsibility in a similar way, and stop trying to sweep history under the carpet. If they do not, its possible there may soon be a lot of empty spaces on the walls of the museum, as more artists troubled by the ugly provenance of Bhrles collection ask for their own works to be withdrawn from the Kunsthaus.
Translated by Nicholas Grindell
Main image:Kunsthaus Zurich, Chipperfield building, view Heimplatz with Pipilotti Rist, Tastende Lichter (Fumbled Lights), 2020, Pipilotti Rist; photograph: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zurich
Excerpt from:
The Ugly Provenance of Kunsthaus Zrich's Collection - frieze.com
- Lithuania must acknowledge its role in the Holocaust - opinion - The Jerusalem Post - September 26th, 2023
- The White Factory review: An important addition to the Shoah canon - The Jewish Chronicle - September 22nd, 2023
- In an unsettling account of French collaboration with Nazis, disturbing parallels with todays politics - Forward - September 22nd, 2023
- Mom Shocked By 8th Grade Teacher Reading Anne Frank's Diary ... - Bored Panda - September 22nd, 2023
- On the History of Antisemitism | USC Shoah Foundation - USC Shoah Foundation | - September 18th, 2023
- Renaissance of Italian synagogues and cemeteries showcased at Ferrara Jewish museum - The Times of Israel - September 18th, 2023
- The lesson of history & hate: Is Holocaust 1.0 the new Holocaust ... - New York Daily News - September 18th, 2023
- Catholic institutions offered shelter to Jews during the Second World ... - Jesuits Global - September 18th, 2023
- How I learned to fill in the gaps in my family's Shoah story - The Jewish Chronicle - September 12th, 2023
- The Zoryan Institute Issues an Open Letter to the Rabbinical Centre of Europe - Armenian News by MassisPost - September 12th, 2023
- Village View: USC Shoah Foundation to celebrate 30th anniversary - Main Line - August 22nd, 2023
- 78 years after the Shoah, Israels air defense system to protect ... - JNS.org - August 22nd, 2023
- Sidney Itzkowitz fought with Jewish partisans behind Nazi lines ... - The Globe and Mail - August 22nd, 2023
- Oprah Winfrey Net Worth 2023: What Is The TV Host Worth? - HotNewHipHop - August 22nd, 2023
- Holocaust survivor whose family were ripped apart during the Shoah ... - The Jewish Chronicle - August 14th, 2023
- Deny and Distort | USC Shoah Foundation - USC Shoah Foundation | - August 14th, 2023
- The ultimate Jewish guide to Milan: What to see, eat and do ... - Jewish Unpacked - August 14th, 2023
- Antisemitism and Radical Anti-Israel Bias on the Political Left in ... - ADL - August 14th, 2023
- Remembering the Treblinka rebellion - JNS.org - August 14th, 2023
- From Nazi Camp to Memorial Centre: In Serbia, the Transition Isn't ... - Balkan Insight - August 14th, 2023
- Controversy swirls around Bollywood romcom and use of Shoah ... - JNS.org - August 3rd, 2023
- A Film About the Holocaust Survivor Who Helped Make Abortion ... - Kveller.com - August 3rd, 2023
- Our doors are open: York gets its first resident rabbi in more than 800 years - The Guardian - August 3rd, 2023
- Making a difference in the community - Australian Jewish News - August 3rd, 2023
- Seven weeks of consolation! | 7 - Arutz Sheva - August 3rd, 2023
- Letters to the editor, 4 August 2023 - The Jewish Chronicle - August 3rd, 2023
- Rabbi Uziel and the Holocaust: New Readings for Tisha b'Av - Jewish Journal - July 20th, 2023
- Why Germany Struggled to Reckon With the Nazi Past - Jacobin magazine - July 20th, 2023
- The fight against British extremism is never over - The Jewish Chronicle - July 20th, 2023
- David Shulick Promoted to Vice President of Corporate Affairs for ... - PR Web - July 20th, 2023
- Keep the Postal Service Out of the Booze Delivery Business - gvwire.com - July 20th, 2023
- In-N-Out Burger Employees Forbidden to Wear Masks Unless They Have a Doctors Note - gvwire.com - July 20th, 2023
- In Sweden, they burn Torahs - Religion News Service - July 20th, 2023
- Nazis in the cellar: is antisemitism coming out of hiding? - Prospect Magazine - July 20th, 2023
- Why this vegan activist's Holocaust analogy has angered the Jewish ... - SBS News - July 20th, 2023
- CA High-Speed Rail Gets Busy in 2023 With Five New Overcrossings - gvwire.com - July 20th, 2023
- The 25 Highest-Rated Movies of All Time on Letterboxd - MovieWeb - July 20th, 2023
- Diary shows hardships of post-Shoah refugees - The Jewish Star - July 14th, 2023
- Virtual Reality Brings New Look at the Holocaust - The Media Line - July 14th, 2023
- Peter Moffat to adapt The Escape Artist - Televisual - July 14th, 2023
- Preserving histories: Teaching the Holocaust to future generations - Worcester Mag - July 14th, 2023
- Roundup: Bears In The Woods, Hiro On The Mound - 06880 - July 14th, 2023
- I dreamed of joining the IDF growing up and finally donned the ... - The Jewish Chronicle - July 14th, 2023
- As Tree of Life trial enters final phase, 6 Jewish scholars on what text and tradition say about the death penalty - Forward - July 14th, 2023
- USC Shoah Foundation Testimonies - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - July 9th, 2023
- The riots in France have become antisemitic - opinion - The Jerusalem Post - July 9th, 2023
- Obituary: Sidney Cyngiser, 99, shared his story about the Shoah ... - The Canadian Jewish News - July 7th, 2023
- Parisian Holocaust Memorial Trashed The European Conservative - The European Conservative - July 7th, 2023
- Reunion of Torah Scrolls | Community | thejewishnews.com - The Jewish News - July 7th, 2023
- How Donald Trump convinced the son of Jewish refugees to ... - The Jerusalem Post - July 7th, 2023
- How a master of understatement conjured up the horrors of the Shoah - Forward - June 29th, 2023
- How Jewish is Stacey Solomon? Star's hebrew heritage revealed - The Jewish Chronicle - June 29th, 2023
- What Is The Longest Movie Ever Made? - The Script Lab - June 29th, 2023
- A Strong Man and a Warrior - Jewish Journal - June 29th, 2023
- Megan Fox Claimed Misogynistic Hollywood Only Wants Her to Play ... - FandomWire - June 29th, 2023
- J'lem Film Festival to feature films on Libyan Holocaust and Kiryat ... - Haaretz - June 23rd, 2023
- A Change Is Needed in How We Remember the Holocaust - Jewish Link of New Jersey - June 23rd, 2023
- Column: The Flower Communion | News, Sports, Jobs - Daily Mining Gazette - June 23rd, 2023
- He used to be a Christian Holocaust scholar. Now hes a Jew - Forward - June 23rd, 2023
- We cannot abandon them in their old age - The Jewish Standard - June 23rd, 2023
- Why a gripping new movie about the aftermath of a terrorist attack is personal for its director - Forward - June 23rd, 2023
- LETTERS: Weaponizing the Holocaust; Carlebach and the perils of ... - The Jewish News of Northern California - June 23rd, 2023
- What Is a Political Film, Anyway? - The New Republic - June 23rd, 2023
- Dimensions in Testimony The Most Interactive Holocaust Exhibit to ... - The Link - June 23rd, 2023
- Berlusconi and the Jews: Pro-Israel, but soft on antisemites and ... - Haaretz - June 12th, 2023
- Spiritual Resistance in the Holocaust Mosaic - Mosaic - June 12th, 2023
- The Tonys honored plays about antisemitism the winners were eager to talk about anything else - Forward - June 12th, 2023
- Shows about antisemitism win big at Tonys + ADL chief wants Tucker Carlson off Twitter - Forward - June 12th, 2023
- 92-year old Shoah survivor Eve Kugler honoured with live sculpture - Jewish News - June 10th, 2023
- Shoah education first as extended reality (XR) experience offers ... - Jewish News - June 10th, 2023
- Special Screening of Remember This | USC Shoah Foundation - USC Shoah Foundation | - June 6th, 2023
- US weighs in on Roger Waters controversy, says artist has long track record of using antisemitic tropes - EL PAS USA - June 6th, 2023
- Holocaust remembrance and the indomitable spirit of Holocaust ... - The Jerusalem Post - June 6th, 2023
- You Should Know...Andrea Heymann - Jewish Exponent - June 6th, 2023
- The 'unwinnable' video game that lights a path for Shoah education - The Jewish Chronicle - June 4th, 2023
- The rebbes beard: An original short story - The Jerusalem Post - June 4th, 2023
- Head of Yad Vashem decries a new low in efforts to gloss over Polands complicity in the Holocaust - Forward - June 4th, 2023
- New Rabbinical recruits at top college span science and art - The Jewish Chronicle - June 4th, 2023
- 'My mum was rounded up by Hitler's henchmen whilst games were ... - The Jewish Chronicle - June 4th, 2023
- Testimony of the Multitude | USC Shoah Foundation - USC Shoah Foundation | - May 29th, 2023
Comments