Looted art: Mexico, Panama protest Munich house auction

Numerous Latin American countries have called to stop an auction of pre-Hispanic artifacts in Munich, saying there is no legal basis for their sale.

The controversial auction was set to take place as planned on Tuesday. The 324 artifacts on offer in Munich, most of which are vessels, coins and jewellery, date roughly from 1500 B.C. to 1460 A.D. The stone face mask of an Olmec dignitary is the most valuable object in the auction, with an estimated price of €100,000 ($117,000).

Ambassadors from the Group of Latin America and the Caribbean (GRULAC) asked the auction house to suspend the sale at a press conference on Tuesday morning. They also called on German authorities and the German public to step in.

The auction of objects from seven countries violates the national laws of the respective countries, international law and “possibly German law,” they explained during the conference, adding that it is “worrying that the moral right of our Indigenous people is being violated in this way.” 

Mexico claims auction items

The controversy began with a complaint filed with the Mexican Attorney General’s Office and a letter from Mexico’s culture minister, Alejandra Frausto.

Frausto informed the auction house in a letter that 74 items in the auction catalog had been identified as belonging to Mexico.

The auction house responded with a statement saying that all the artifacts on offer had “proof of provenance that the objects are in Germany legally.” All objects had been investigated by the Art Loss Register, they said.

Mexico’s Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto has called for the auction to be stopped

The Art Loss Register is a private database for lost and stolen artworks, founded in 1991 by the International Foundation for Art Research, art trade associations and auction houses. Dealers can use the database to research the provenance of artworks before a planned auction, for example.

If the respective object is not found in the database, the register confirms with a certificate that it was not reported as stolen or lost at the time of the search. However, this does not completely rule out the possibility that theft or loss occurred and was not included, as the register is not linked with other databases.

Panama calls for objects to be removed

Panama has also called for the auction house to withdraw from sale seven pre-Columbian artifacts, namely Cocle Parita and Cocle Conte-style pottery vessels.

In a statement on Monday, the Panamanian Foreign Ministry said it had informed its German counterpart about “the disagreement with the sale of these objects, as they could be part of Panamanian historical heritage,” according to a statement reported by the AFP news agency. The Central American country’s embassy said it wanted experts from the Panamanian Culture Ministry to determine their origin and the legal situation surrounding them.

According to the auction house’s website, the seven Cocle Parita- and Cocle Conte-style pottery vessels are among more than 300 pre-Hispanic objects from Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Bolivia and Peru set for auction on Tuesday.

Mexico’s ambassador to Germany, Francisco Quiroga, warned potential buyers in a Twitter note on Monday: “To the potential buyers we say: This trade is tainted with illegality and insensitivity.”

Referring to items dating back more than 500 years but valued at only a few hundred euros, he said: “If something sounds too good to be true, don’t be surprised if it turns out to be false.” The auction house was not available for comment.

It is unclear what concrete demands Mexico’s Culture Ministry has made beyond the cancellation of the auction. In Mexico’s view, the sale of the artifacts is a criminal offense under Mexican law, and such sales contribute to smuggling and cross-border organized crime.

Clothing brands also targeted

Mexico’s Culture Ministry has already been making headlines with similar claims that reach beyond the art world. Back in June, it accused three international clothing companies, including the Spanish fashion chain Zara, of cultural appropriation. The ministry claimed companies had used patterns of Indigenous population groups in their collections without any benefit to the communities.

Mexico’s Culture Ministry took a swipe at Zara for using a pattern based on an Indigenous design

The patterns are said to be based on traditional patterns of the Mixteca community in the southwestern state of Oaxaca. Culture Minister Frausto had announced last year that Mexico would no longer tolerate cultural appropriation without compensation. The ministry aims to protect the country’s cultural heritage.

Mexico has previously objected to auctions of pre-Columbian art objects in France and the United States, as well as other countries. Latin America historian Stefan Rinke, speaking with German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk Kultur, said such protests have been seen as symbolic and are used by the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to secure the votes of Mexico’s Indigenous population.

Germany’s controversial past

Germany has been at the center of several controversies surrounding art restitution, which have continued to the present day. There have been numerous debates, for example, around the ethnological collections of Berlin’s newest museum, the Humboldt Forum. Many of the items were acquired during the colonial period, including the Benin Bronzes, masterpieces taken during a savage plundering of the Kingdom of Benin by British troops in 1897.

Germany is also dealing with the topic of art restitution in the context of World War II, when the Nazis systematically plundered Jewish art collections in Germany. There have been many cases in which art dealers profited from the persecution of Jewish collectors, and it’s not uncommon for auction houses to be involved.

This article was translated from German with additional information from AFP

• Gurlitt Collection: Germany’s most infamous Nazi-looted art trove

  Carl Spitzweg, Playing the Piano, ca. 1840

  This drawing by Carl Spitzweg was seized in 1939 from Jewish music publisher Heinri Hinrichsen, who was killed at the Auschwitz death camp in 1942. It was acquired by Nazi art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt — and later found among the spectacular collection of works hoarded by his son, Cornelius Gurlitt. The work has now been handed over to Christie’s auction house at the request of Hinrichsen’s heirs.

• Gurlitt Collection: Germany’s most infamous Nazi-looted art trove

  Max Beckmann, Zandvoort Beach Cafe, 1934

  The watercolor by the Jewish painter Max Beckmann entered Gurlitt’s collection only in 1945. Held by the allied occupation forces at the Central Collecting Point in Wiesbaden from 1945-1950, it was returned to Hildebrand Gurlitt in 1950. Before working for the Nazi regime, Gurlitt had collected and exhibited modern art, curating Beckmann’s last exhibition in 1936 before the artist fled Germany.

• Gurlitt Collection: Germany’s most infamous Nazi-looted art trove

  Otto Griebel, Veiled Woman, 1926

  This work was owned by lawyer and art collector Fritz Salo Glaser. Artists of Dresden’s avant-garde scene were his guests in the 1920s — as was the young Hildebrand Gurlitt. It is not known how Gurlitt came to possess the painting. It was confiscated in 1945 and later returned. Of Jewish heritage, Glaser only narrowly avoided deportation to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1945.

• Gurlitt Collection: Germany’s most infamous Nazi-looted art trove

  Claude Monet, Waterloo Bridge, 1903

  This painting by the famous impressionist is not suspected to have been looted. The artist sold it to the Durand Ruel Gallery in 1907. The Jewish art merchant and publisher Paul Cassirer is said to have given it to Marie Gurlitt as a present, and she left it to her son Hildebrand Gurlitt in 1923.

• Gurlitt Collection: Germany’s most infamous Nazi-looted art trove

  Thomas Couture, Portrait of a Seated Young Woman, 1850

  A short handwritten note allowed provenance researchers to identify this work by the French painter as a looted work of art. The picture was seized from the collection of Jewish politician and resistance leader Georges Mandel, who was executed by French fascists near Paris in 1944. German Culture Minister Monika Grütters (right) handed over the work to Mandel’s heirs in January 2019.

• Gurlitt Collection: Germany’s most infamous Nazi-looted art trove

  Paul Signac, Quai de Clichy, 1887

  The activist group Provenance Research Gurlitt identified this painting by French neo-impressionist Paul Signac as stolen Jewish property in October 2018. Gaston Prosper Levy fled Nazi-occupied France in 1940. Occupying soldiers are believed to have looted his art collection shortly before his escape. The painting was returned to Levy’s family in 2019.

• Gurlitt Collection: Germany’s most infamous Nazi-looted art trove

  Auguste Rodin, Crouching Woman, approx. 1882

  Hildebrand Gurlitt must have acquired this work by the French sculptor between 1940 and 1945. Previously belonging to the Frenchman Eugene Rudier, it entered circulation in 1919 at an auction by Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau, who is said to have received it as a present from the artist.

• Gurlitt Collection: Germany’s most infamous Nazi-looted art trove

  In Gurlitt’s apartment

  Cornelius Gurlitt hoarded the sculpture along with many other artworks for decades in his Munich apartment. Before his death in 2014, he consented to have his stocks researched and — should they include articles of stolen art — have them returned to their rightful owners in accordance with the Washington Principles on Nazi-looted art.

• Gurlitt Collection: Germany’s most infamous Nazi-looted art trove

  Albrecht Dürer, Knight, Death and Devil, 1513

  This copper engraving by Albrecht Dürer once belonged to the Falkeisen-Huber Gallery in Basel. It is not known how it got there or how long it was there however. In 2012 the engraving turned up in Cornelius Gurlitt’s collection. “Old masters” like Dürer were very important to the National Socialists’ view of art and were often exploited for propaganda.

• Gurlitt Collection: Germany’s most infamous Nazi-looted art trove

  Edvard Munch, Ashes II, 1899

  The provenance of this drawing is completely unknown. It is certain, however, that Hitler considered Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s work “degenerate art.” Some 82 pieces by Munch were confiscated in German museums in 1937.

• Gurlitt Collection: Germany’s most infamous Nazi-looted art trove

  Francois Boucher, Male Nude, undated

  Hitler venerated 18th century French painting. He secured exceptional paintings for his own collection by targeting the collection of the Rothschild Family after the annexation of Austria. Hildebrand Gurlitt supplemented them with drawings by renowned French painters. He acquired this work by Boucher from a Parisian art merchant in 1942.

  Author: Julia Hitz

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/looted-art-mexico-panama-protest-munich-house-auction/a-59248908?maca=en-rss-en-ger-1023-xml-atom