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 in Zurich, recommends a new report on Friday of experts.
According to Raphael Gross, a renowned Swiss historian and president of the German Historical Museum, further research is needed into the identification of the former Jewish owners, the confiscation of the works linked to Nazi persecution and 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 decides during a press briefing, quoted by the Keystone-ATS agency. He had been commissioned by the local authorities and the Kunsthaus Zurich, where part of this collection which has sparked virulent controversy for many years is exhibited.
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.
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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 some 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 of five emblematic paintings from the collection showed methodological shortcomings, such as a lack of thoroughness and perseverance in determining exactly the circumstances in which the arms dealer was able to acquire them.
So, for Madame Cézanne with a fan by Paul Cézanne which belonged to the writer, poet and great art collector Gertrude Stein. “Her owner was exposed in occupied France to an inherent situation of persecution,” the report points out. Gertrude Stein sells the Cézanne to an art dealer “who is proven to have profited from the plight of Jewish refugees” et “Here too, the provenance of this work has not yet been sufficiently studied,” the document continues.
“The requirement to present the collection in its historical context can only be met when further research into these additional cases has been undertaken,” believes Raphael Gross. The Bürhle collection is not the only one affected. On June 19, the Kunsthaus announced the sale of The Man with the Umbrella of Claude Monet from his collection, after an amicable agreement with the heirs of a Jewish collector persecuted by the Nazis and forced to sell the work to survive in Switzerland.
“A method of examination”
The Gross report also recommends that the association overseeing the museum create a committee made up of specialists from various backgrounds to “develop a review method for Nazi-related confiscations” and apply it both to the works of the Kunsthaus itself and to long-term loans.
Finally, the report considers that it is time to conduct a reflection – if possible publicly – on the association with the very name of Emil Bührle, which is thus “highlighted.” “The question arises 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.
