Ongoing and Completed Research Projects

Benin Dialogue Group und
Digital Benin Project

Museum Folkwang owns a Benin Bronze. Benin Bronzes is the name given to the metal plaques and sculptures that decorated the Royal Palace of the Kingdom of Benin in what is now Nigeria. As a result of colonialization, they were brought to Europe in 1897 by the United Kingdom as looted art[J1] . The Nigerian government is demanding they be returned. Museum Folkwang is part of the Benin Dialogue Group, a working group made up of West European museums and representatives of the Nigerian government and involved in the Digital Benin Project, a project to digitally network the works of art from the former Kingdom of Benin that was initiated by the Museum am Rothenbaum – Kulturen und Künste der Welt (MARKK) in Hamburg.

Further information is available under www.digital-benin.org.

The Art Dealings of the Hermann and Aenne Abels Galleries in the Context of Acquisitions for Museums in Rhineland and the Ruhr District, 1933−1968.
Joint research project between Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen and Museum Folkwang

Until the end of the 1960s, the Cologne galleries run by the siblings Hermann Abels (1892−1956, Kunstsalon Hermann Abels (formerly Gemäldegalerie Abels) and Aenne Abels (1900−1975, Galerie Aenne Abels) dominated the art market in the Rhineland: they sold 19th-century art, Impressionist art, and Classic Modernist art to numerous museums in the Rhineland, the Ruhr district, and Westphalia, amongst other places. From the early 20th century, the Abels family has been highly successful in the German art trade and was also able to continue its transactions during the Third Reich. After Hermann Abels was called up, Aenne Abels was appointed Managing Director of the gallery. Like her brother she was also involved in the “Linz Special Commission”. All acquisitions with this provenance need to be examined to establish whether they were confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution.

In view of the fact that between 1933 and 1968, Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen and Museum Folkwang acquired a total of 43 works from the Abels family as art dealers, in 2017 the two museums teamed up for a joint research project to examine the works in their collections acquired from the Abels and both ascertain whether the artworks in question were confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution and explore the trade networks of the Abels’ galleries.

The project (1 July, 2017 − 30 June, 2018) was funded by the German Lost Art Foundation.

It was not possible to ascertain the provenance of all items: in five cases further research is needed and in four cases there is an urgent need for research. The current status of research work is regularly updated on our website.

Berlin Galerie Dr. Wilhelm August Luz during the Third Reich and Post-War Period

From 2009 to 2011, Museum Folkwang cooperated with the Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Dortmund to research the provenance of 19th-century paintings purchased between 1935 and 1945 from Berlin art dealer Wilhelm August Luz or that found their way into the collections via a different route.

The project was funded by the Coordination Office for Provenance Research, Berlin. The agency was later incorporated into the German Lost Art Foundation in Magdeburg set up in 2015.