2009 - Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

The painting “Virgin and Child with
Angels Making Music in a Garland
of Flowers” by Frans Francken the
Younger prior to restoration ...
After a great deal of research, it was possible
to establish contact with a family who are
presumed to be the rightful owners of a late
Gothic bust of an apostle in the holdings of
the Skulpturensammlung. This wooden figure
had come to Dresden in connection with
Hitler’s “Sonderauftrag Linz” (Special Commission
on Linz) and had been disregarded
for decades. Several paintings held in the
two galleries are also connected with the
“Sonderauftrag Linz”. This organisation was
closely associated with Dresden since the
director of the Gallery, Hans Posse, and his
successor Hermann Voss also functioned
as Hitler’s “special commissioners” for the
acquisition of art between 1939 and 1945.
Some of the paintings intended for the
“Führermuseum” in Linz (which was never
built) remained in Dresden by chance after
the war and were identified in the two
galleries. In November 2009 they were registered
in the LostArt database operated by
the Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste
(Coordination Office for Cultural Losses)
in Magdeburg, since in some cases their
previous owner is unknown and it is possible
that they may have been lost by their owners
as a result of National Socialist persecution.
The listing of items in the LostArt database
has already led to success in the case of an
assortment of drawings and prints held in
the Kupferstich-Kabinett. It belonged to a
Jewish family from Berlin who had to leave
Germany and later sold their art collection
... after the removal of old retouching (detail) ...
by auction in Switzerland. Hans Posse purchased
sheets from the collection for the
“Sonderauftrag Linz”. Representatives of
the heirs contacted the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Dresden after seeing the
listing in the LostArt database, so that now
it is possible to discuss the future of this
assortment of works.
In summer 2009 a great deal of media attention
was attracted by a potential restitution
case. The property of the family of Count
Heinrich von Lehndorff, a member of the
German resistance connected with the
assassination attempt on Hitler on 20th July
1944, was transported from East Prussia to
Saxony by the Wehrmacht before the end of
the war. Several works of art from among
this property ended up in Saxon museums
and castles, including those in Dresden.
Research by the museums, for example the
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, has brought
some of these items to light. The administrative
proceedings conducted by the
Bundesamt für zentrale Dienste und offene
Vermögensfragen (Federal Office for Central
Services and Unsettled Property Issues)
(which is not a court trial!) should be completed
in 2010.
... and with replacement of retouching using gouache paints (detail)
SELECtED REStORAtION
PROJ ECtS
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
• Restoration of the painting “Virgin and
Child with Angels playing Music in a
Garland of Flowers” by Frans Francken
the Younger
The panel painting “Virgin and Child with
Angels Playing Music in a Garland of
Flowers” produced by the Flemish master
Frans Francken the Younger in about 1620
could not be exhibited owing to its state
of preservation. The many areas of paint
loss had been touched up in the past, but
these areas had changed through ageing
to such an extent that they were no
longer in harmony with the original. In
addition, the varnish had yellowed and
its surface was irregular.
The painting underwent thorough restoration.
After the layers of varnish and the
areas of touching up had been removed,
work on reconstructing the painting could
begin. In doing so, it was possible to refer
to a painting from the collection in Kassel
which also originates from the workshop
of Frans Francken, “The Holy Family in a
Garland of Flowers”. The central medallion
shows a different, but related, depiction
of the Virgin.
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