Verfemt – Gehandelt. Die Sammlung Doebbeke im Zwielicht: Von Corinth bis Kirchner

The current status of the Conrad Doebbeke Collection at the Sprengel Museum Hannover

With the exhibition "VERFEMT - GEHANDELT. The Doebbeke Collection in the Twilight" from July to November 2019, the City of Hanover provided insights into its provenance research at the Sprengel Museum on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Washington Agreement on the "Settlement of Outstanding Issues of Compensation and Restitution", also in order to create transparency about the origins of its own collections. This volume documents the current state of research into the works of art transferred to the city of Hanover by Conrad Doebbeke (1889-1954), a Berlin property dealer, in 1949. Using partly detective-like methods, the trade routes of the artworks formerly confiscated from museums and the forced sales during the National Socialist tyranny were researched. As a result of the "Degenerate Art" campaign in 1937 and the effects of the war, numerous works of art were lost in the museums of the city of Hanover, the loss of which was to be compensated for by new acquisitions in the post-war period. Here, too, the former ownership situation did not receive the attention that would have been appropriate given the nature of the transfers of art possessions from disenfranchised, persecuted, emigrated or even destroyed previous owners. This volume is intended to help close the provenance gaps in connection with the Doebbeke Collection.