Further information
The foundations for an art collection were already laid when the Academy of the Arts was established in 1696. . The collection grew considerably through donations and the incorporation of archives, and occasionally through acquisitions from the art trade or private persons. Much of the collection holdings and artworks as well as inventory books and archive files dating from the 1933 to 1945 period were lost during the war. Consequently, determining precisely when objects were acquired and their provenances was more difficult. Provenances of the academic old stock used for teaching had to be reconstructed based on the archival records of the Historical Archives of the Akademie .
Works of art for which there was no information regarding their origin or when they became part of the collection because of the confusion due to the division and later reunification of East and West Germany and subsequent returns were researched. With the foundation of the German Academy of Arts in the GDR in 1950, the art collection once again began to be expanded. Works were acquired or received as donations, often in the context of estate left to the Academy.
This included researching the circumstances under which entire estates were acquired. The estate of Otto Nagel, for example, donated to the Academy in 1985 by the artist's daughter, is continues to be the subject of research. In addition to works by the artist himself, it includes numerous paintings by artists he was friends with, for example a painting by Hans Baluschek and an oil sketch by Käthe Kollwitz. These works most likely constitute a legal exchange of ownership between friends. Nevertheless, concrete proof of this was not found, which is why the provenance is marked as "not unquestionable beyond doubt", i.e. the provenance has not been unequivocally clarified for the period from 1933 to 1945 and there are gaps in the provenance.
The Academy of the Arts Berlin (West), founded in 1954, did not add any stand-alone art collection to the archive. It mainly held the historical archive of the Prussian Academy of Arts and some of the Academy's own artworks that had remained in the Western occupation zones. Nevertheless, purchases were made on the art market for existing archives, such as the work by Jewish artist Julie Wolfthornacquired in 1978 for the Tilla Durieux Archive, which despite intensive research still had gaps in its provenance and was therefore categorised as "questionable".
The verified provenances of 283 artworks were classified as "unquestionable" during the course of the project: The sculptures and paintings were unequivocally identified as property of the Academy of the Arts before 1933 or as having come directly from the creator of the work or their descendants, including Franz Heynacher's painting Achilles' Trauer um Patroklos.
One painting documents a connection to the Degenerate Art campaign in its biography. The painting is called Havelzieh-Brücke in der Mark by Max Kaus dating from 1931.
For 54 paintings and 53 sculptures, the provenances for the period from 1933 to 1945 had not been unequivocally clarified by the time the project ended (as of April 2021). These include artworks by unidentified authors and works without documented acquisition backgrounds, including purchases and donations for the collections of the Academy of the Arts (East) and the Academy of the Arts (West). These objects were assigned to the provenance categories of "not unquestionable without doubt" and "questionable". On the other hand, according to current research there are no positions under the "problematic" category, among other things because of the cautious acquisition policy between 1933 and 1945. Three artworks were deemed to have been lost.
The aim of the project was to systematically research and document the provenances of the paintings and sculptures examined from the art collection of the Academy of the Arts, which was established before 1945. The focus was on completing the provenances for the period from 1933. With regard to the art objects examined, none of the works gave rise to a definite suspicion of confiscation due to Nazi persecution. All indications were rigorously pursued. Works from the art collection for which confiscation due to Nazi persecution was likely have been added to the Lost Art Database. Their origin will continue to be researched as part of the ongoing provenance research at the Akademie der Künste.
