SPOT ON: 1937. The "degenerate art" in Düsseldorf

In the Düsseldorf Art Collections alone, around 1.000 artworks left the museum storerooms. In addition, many modern works were exchanged or sold on the museum‘s own initiative between 1933 and 1945.

14.7.2017 - 26.8.2018

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In 2013, inventory records and other documents in the museum and in the municipal archives relating to the confiscation were studied in detail for the first time. The project was initiated by the museum‘s provenance researcher and the Research Center for “Degenerate Art“ at the Freie Universität in Berlin and resulted in a comprehensive update of the Center’s research database.

This year, exactly 80 years after the confiscation, our museum wants to put the insights of this research project into perspective and communicate it to a larger audience.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Drei Badende, 1913, Öl auf Leinwand, 197,5 x 147,5 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation Purchase 1984 (nach der Beschlagnahme 1940 an den Kunsthändler Karl Buchholz verkauft) © Foto: AGNSW