Buhrle Foundation investigation

Bührle Foundation ordered to conduct further research into origins of its collection A report commissioned by Swiss authorities calls for new studies into the former owners of 170 works, some of which may have been stolen from Jews during the Nazi period. The Emil Bührle  Foundation must further study the provenance of works of art from the very rich collection amassed by this arms dealer during the Nazi period and today exhibited at the  Kunsthaus Zurich  , a new report recommends on Friday of experts. According to Raphael Gross, renowned Swiss historian and president of the Museum of German History, new research is needed on the identification of the former Jewish owners, on the confiscation of the works, linked to the Nazi persecution or even the circumstances in which the owners had to part with their works. "Without the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis, the Bührle Collection would never have reached such a level,"  the historian said at a press briefing, quoted by the Keystone-ATS agency. He had been commissioned by the local authorities and the Kunsthaus in Zurich, where part of this collection is exhibited, which has sparked a virulent controversy for many years. 633 works Zurich's renowned art museum came under fire when it opened a new building in 2021 to house the impressive 170-piece collection of the naturalized Swiss German industrialist and arts patron, entrusted to the Kunsthaus by the EG Bührle Collection Foundation, which remains the owner of the works. Between 1936 and 1956, the arms dealer bought 633 works:  Manet  , Renoir, Degas, Monet, Sisley,  Cézanne  , Rembrandt, Toulouse-Lautrec,  Picasso  , Braque, Van Gogh and Gauguin. Some had previously been stolen from Jews or sold in a hurry by their owners to flee the Nazis. Until 2015, the collection was visible in a very confidential site in Zurich, but paintings had been stolen during a hold-up in 2008, which had prompted the museum to move the whole collection. Circumstances of acquisition A case study around 5 emblematic paintings from the collection showed methodological shortcomings such as a lack of thoroughness and perseverance to know exactly under what circumstances the arms dealer was able to acquire them. Thus, for  Madame Cézanne, the Paul Cézanne fan  which belonged to the writer, poet and great art collector  Gertrude Stein  .  “Its owner was exposed in occupied France to an inherent situation of persecution,”  underlines the report. Gertrude Stein sold the Cézanne to an art dealer  “who has been proven to have profited from the fate of Jewish refugees”  and  “here too the provenance of this work is not yet sufficiently studied,”  the document continues. "The requirement to present the collection in its historical context can only be met when new research into these additional cases has been undertaken,"  says Raphael Gross. The Bürhle collection is not the only one concerned. On June 19, the Kunsthaus announced the sale of  Claude Monet  's  Man with a Parasol  from its collection, following an amicable agreement with the heirs of a Jewish collector persecuted by the Nazis and forced to sell the work in order to survive in Switzerland. "A method of examination" The Gross report also recommends that the museum's umbrella association create a committee made up of specialists from diverse backgrounds to  "develop an examination method for Nazi-related confiscations"  and apply it to both the Kunsthaus's works itself and long-term loans. Finally, the report considers that it is time to carry out a reflection - if possible public - around the association with the very name of Emil Bührle, which is thus  "highlighted". “The question arises as to whether a public institution can do this in accordance with a moral and ethical attitude?”,  underlines the report. The city, canton and Kunsthaus announced that they would take a position on the recommendations in mid-July. © www.vwart.com