Turmoil at Bavarian state museums as director quits and state prosecutor investigates – The Art Newspaper

An escalating crisis at the Bavarian State Painting Collections, which began as a scandal over how the museum authority handles Nazi-looted art, has prompted the departure of its director, Bernhard Maaz, and led the Munich state prosecutor to open a preliminary investigation.

Maaz’s resignation was announced at a press conference last week by Markus Blume, the state’s culture minister. “He has cleared the way for a new beginning, which is urgently necessary,” Blume said. “This crisis of confidence has not yet been overcome.” Blume named Anton Biebl as interim director to replace Maaz.

The tumult at the Bavarian State Painting Collections, which oversees Munich museums including the Alte Pinakothek, began when the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported in February that the organisation was hiding research showing that works in its collection were looted by the Nazis. The report revealed the existence of an internal list of 200 works in the Bavarian State Painting Collections that were categorised in a traffic-light system as “red”, which the newspaper said meant they were “clearly looted”.

The State Painting Collections, which is a government authority under the state culture ministry’s control, said it “vehemently rejects” those accusations and that a “red” categorisation did not necessarily mean paintings were looted. But Blume called for “more transparency, accountability and consistency” and announced more funding for provenance research.

“Lots of questions remain open,” Blume said at last week’s press conference. “We take these accusations very seriously. Bavaria’s museums and collections are of course flagships for Bavaria, so there must be no doubt about their integrity. There is no place for antisemitism and no place for relativising our historic responsibilities.”

The crisis has now widened. Blume’s enquiries into operations at the State Painting Collections uncovered “misconduct” that has nothing to do with provenance and restitution, he said, announcing an internal investigation. Since then, the state prosecutor has also opened preliminary investigations, according to the German press agency DPA, which quoted a spokeswoman for the prosecutor. She declined to give any detail about suspected wrongdoing, DPA said.

The prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Blume announced a series of measures to improve the quality, pace and transparency of provenance research at the museums. Any works in the collection suspected of having been looted will be listed on the German government website lostart.de, he said. He promised a concrete timetable for provenance research. An external team led by Maike Hopp, a professor of provenance research at Berlin’s Technical University, will examine research practices at the State Painting Collections and make sure they meet national standards, he said.

“We cannot be happy with the status of provenance research and restitution practice” in the Bavarian State Paintings Collections, Blume said.

The Bavarian State Painting Collections has employed an in-house provenance researcher since 2008. According to its website, it has restituted 24 works since 1998. That compares with more than 360 works returned by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the organisation that oversees Berlin’s museums.

In addition, many of the works that the State Painting Collections has returned to heirs are “of lesser value,’’ said Sanne Kurz, a Green party member of the Bavarian parliament. She added that “really valuable works have not been returned.” Blume has himself come under fire for his refusal to submit a dispute over Pablo Picasso’s 1903 Portrait of Madame Soler to the German government’s advisory commission on Nazi-looted art.

In a press release issued after Maaz’s resignation, Kurz criticised Blume for not addressing the deficits at the museums earlier. “He has been responsible as culture minister for three years but obviously didn’t know his own organisations or did not have them under control,” she said. She said the Greens will be watching to see whether Maaz’s departure was “a pawn sacrifice” or whether the reforms amount to “a genuine improvement.”