Research and reports

Anet-Commode

The Anet chest of drawers is part of the Stadtmuseum Berlin’s “Reichsbank furniture” collection. But how did this piece of French furniture end up at the Märkisches Museum, which specialises in the history of Berlin and Brandenburg? In this essay, we will provide insight into ongoing provenance research.

The Märkisches Museum’s “Special Silver Inventory”

Nearly five hundred silver pieces, including spoons, charm bracelets, children’s rattles and other objects, are stored in a metal cabinet in the Stadtmuseum Berlin’s collection depot. The objects originate from compulsory levies placed on Jewish people from 1939 onwards, and provide insight into a project that the Stadtmuseum Berlin has been carrying out since 1996 to clarify the provenance of each individual object.

Loot – 10 Stories

The Mauritshuis in The Hague is showing "Loot - 10 Stories", an art project in which the stories of objects from three epochs are brought to life with virtual reality: Art looted by French revolutionaries in 1795, everyday objects taken from Jewish forced levies from 1939 onwards, and colonial looted art. The Stadtmuseum Berlin is represented by three loans: Silver objects formerly owned by Jews, a chest of drawers from the Reichsbank furniture collection and a horse's head from the Quadriga of 1793.

The “Reichsbank Furniture”

They came to the Märkisches Museum as a transfer from the Ministry of Finance of the GDR in the 1950s: 47 French antiques from the 18th and 19th centuries. What does French furniture have to do with Berlin's urban history? A contribution from provenance research.

Tracing „Degenerate Art“

Hans Cristof Drexel’s „Die Blumenfrau“