Albert Anker’s work is being examined for Nazi-looted art
Keystone-SDA
At the end of October, the Independent Commission of the Winterthur Foundation for Art, Culture and History launched two investigations into provenance. One of these concerns Albert Anker’s painting Der neue Wein I.
The second work is the sculpture St John (1510–1520), attributed to the workshop of Tilman Riemenschneider. The two proceedings brought by the Independent Commission of the Winterthur Foundation for Art, Culture and History (SKKG) were opened at the end of October, according to a statement issued on Wednesday.
The aim is to clarify “claims arising from Nazi persecution”. The Commission is investigating whether objects in the Foundation’s collection were confiscated between 1933 and 1945 as a result of Nazi persecution – and whether heirs or legal successors of the former owners have claims to them. The two works are currently held in the SKKG’s storage facility and are not on public display.
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In the case of the 1874 painting by the Swiss artist Albert Anker, there is a possibility that the work once belonged to the collection of Erna Marcelina Reder Frenkel (1904–1971) and Jacob Reder (1891–1965). The Jewish couple were persecuted by the Nazis and fled from Brussels to the United States in 1939, the SKKG’s Independent Commission wrote in its statement. It is now examining the work’s ownership history and the question of whether it was “seized as a result of Nazi persecution”. It will subsequently work out “a just and fair solution”.
The Commission does not provide any further details in its statement regarding the provenance of the sculpture St John. It has been in the SKKG’s collection since 1993. This Renaissance work is the fifth case to be dealt with by the Commission.
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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.
