Justus Lange

Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister and Hessen Kassel Heritage, Kassel
Justus Lange studied History of Art, Classical Archeology and Spanish Philology at the Universities of Würzburg and Salamanca. In 2001, he completed his PhD on the early work of Jusepe de Ribera. From 2001-2004, he was assistant curator at the Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen Kassel. Afterwards, from 2004 until 2009, he was appointed curator of the Collection of Paintings, Prints and Drawings and Sculpture at the Städtisches Museums Braunschweig. Since 2009, he has been Head of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel, as well as Head of Collections at Hessen Kassel Heritage since 2013. He curated many exhibitions and published about Old Master Paintings and the history of Collection/Display.

Coming Home? The Return of Paulus Potter’s Watermill to Kassel. Napoleonic Looting as a Side-Field of Provenance Research
Paulus Potter was one of the favorite artists of landgrave Wilhelm VIII of Hessen-Kassel. Ten of his works are listed in the first printed catalogue from 1783. Most of them disappeared during the Napoleonic occupation of Kassel 1806-1813 and only three works remained in Kassel. In 2023, a great opportunity arose. Namely, after more than 200 years, the reacquisition of Potter’s Watermill was made possible thanks to the support of different foundations. During its absence from Kassel, the artwork was part of various collections in France, Great Britain and Germany. Has the painting thus come home? Potter’s artwork is a telling example of personal stories related to provenance in a museum. This case study presents the case of Potter’s return and similar cases such as Pan and Syrinx by Rubens and Brueghel.

Ko Goubert

M Leuven
Ko Goubert is acting Head of Collections at M Leuven, where he has been working since 2012 as registrar and collection curator of decorative arts. As an art historian focused on Belgian silver design, he has curated exhibitions at the former Sterckshof Silver Museum Antwerp, the Design Museum Gent and M Leuven. Goubert publishes works on diverse subjects, ranging from fifteenth-century Leuven silversmiths to Art Deco religious decorative arts in interwar Belgium, with the latter being the focus of his current PhD research. At M, he also contributed to shaping communication policies on looted art and colonial imagery for museum audiences.

The Torturous Journey of a Sixteenth-Century Altarpiece: from Göring’s Wish List to Conversation Starter at M Leuven
The Martyrdom of Saint Quentin at M, sold by Jewish art dealer Léon Seyffers to Nazi buyers in 1941, was lent to the museum by the Belgian State in 1951. It follows the path of dozens of other works in Belgian museums, retrieved from Nazi hoards and unable to be returned to potential claimants. The painting’s troubled history remained absent from object documentation and visitor mediation. Belgium is still behind on other nations’ provenance endeavors, such as national databases of Nazi-looted art. However, the public and political attention in recent years, generated by investigative journalism, marked a turning point in M’s approach. Since 2018, M shares the painting’s troubled history with the audience. An open exchange of information with Seyffers’ relatives, journalists and academics, lets M present a nuanced narrative. The artwork is now a ‘conversation piece’ in the recently renewed galleries and stimulates reflection on loaded topics during museum visits and collection-inspired talks.

Margaret Doyle

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Margaret Doyle studied art history with an emphasis on Germany at the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Graduate Center, City University of New York (PhD). In 2000 she was appointed the first dedicated Nazi-era provenance researcher at the Smithsonian Institution. As deputy head and associate curator of exhibition programs at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., she worked primarily on exhibitions of Northern European art. Since 2020 she has served as the museum’s provenance expert and head of its curatorial records department, which catalogues paintings and sculptures and oversees object research files available to staff and outside researchers for consultation.

Missing Pieces: Gap and Omission in the Mid-Twentieth-Century Provenance of Heemskerck’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt
An immunity from a seizure application in 2024 provided an opportunity to revisit the provenance of Maarten van Heemskerck’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Previous research indicated that the painting belonged to a collector in Switzerland at some point between 1934 and 1952. The life circumstances of this collector, when and where he acquired the canvas, and to whom and when it was passed on were never ascertained. However, newly available resources, such as annotated auction and exhibition catalogues, provided the evidence to close gaps and shut down the likelihood of a looted history. Equally important, the collector in question turned out to be the husband of the actual purchaser, who hadn’t appeared previously in the provenance. This case study demonstrates the importance of continual review of provenances in light of new sources. It also raises the issue of the marginalization of women in ownership histories, often submerged into their husband’s identity or dropped altogether.

Britta Olényi von Husen

Department for Arts and Culture, City of Cologne
Britta Olényi von Husen works for the museums of Cologne as a provenance specialist since 2012. Together with her colleague Marcus Leifeld, she is responsible for conducting provenance research and coordinating restitution matters in nine municipal museums, such as the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, Museum Ludwig, and the Schnütgen Museum. Previously, she worked at Sotheby’s in various departments, including the Restitution Department in London from 2006 to 2011. She also joined the research group for the “Art trouvé Hildebrand Gurlitt”, conducting provenance research on behalf of the German Lost Art Foundation and the Kunstmuseum Bern.

Gaps and Discoveries: Provenance Research at the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud 
The Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud has long been at the forefront of provenance research, committed to uncovering the often complex and incomplete histories behind the artworks in its collection. The museum has undertaken extensive research since Germany –together with over forty other countries— signed the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets in 1998. This case study of a restituted drawing illustrates how research can reveal the intertwined fates of art and their collectors, affected by Nazi persecution. It illustrates a broader approach to provenance research, the challenges posed by incomplete records and gaps, and the profound impact that restitution can have on the families affected by Nazi persecution. There are different methods to uncover hidden histories, depending on the complexities and challenges that arise. In some cases, there is even a very slim chance that new material emerges. 

Piotr Borusowski

Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Warsaw
Piotr Borusowski, curator at the Department of Prints and Drawings at the National Museum in Warsaw, specializes in Dutch, Flemish, and German drawings. His research encompasses the history of art collecting and provenance studies. He holds degrees from the University of Warsaw in Law (2004) and Art History (2006). In 2023 he completed his PhD, Albrecht von Sebisch’s (1685-1748) Collection of Paintings, Drawings and Prints in the Art-Collecting Culture of Central Europa in the First Half of the 18th-Century. From 2012 to 2022, Borusowski served as editor of the Journal of the National Museum in Warsaw. He also edited the museum’s Catalogue of Dutch and Flemish Paintings (2015) and co-curated the 2017 exhibition In the Workshop of a Netherlandish Master: Dutch and Flemish Drawings from the Collection of the National Museum in Warsaw.

Losses and Gains: Polish Museums and Their Collections After World War II: The Case of the National Museum in Warsaw
After the outbreak of World War II, occupying Nazi forces systematically “researched” Polish public and private collections, seizing art considered valuable for its material and cultural significance. Objects deemed less valuable were often destroyed as symbols of Polish identity. The impact of the war on Polish museums, however, went far beyond immediate looting and destruction. The post-war Potsdam Conference brought dramatic border changes, resulting in Poland’s loss of vast eastern territories, while former German territories to the west and north were incorporated into Poland. Consequently, all movable assets east of the Oder and Neisse rivers became Polish state property. Today, curators at Polish museums, including the National Museum in Warsaw, face complex provenance research tasks. These often involve collections once belonging to German institutions, which bring a unique set of challenges and ethical considerations. The National Museum in Warsaw, with its extensive and diverse collection, exemplifies these challenges and showcases the strategies and research approaches currently employed to address them. 

Greta Koppel

Eesti Kunstimuuseum, Tallinn
Greta Koppel has been a curator at the Art Museum of Estonia since 2002. She completed her PhD, Farewell to Connoisseurship? The Work of Art in the Focus of Art Historical Research, in 2021 at the Estonian Academy of Art. Her field of expertise is Early Modern Art, especially Netherlandish art from fifteenth- to seventeenth-century. In her work, she underlines the importance of multi-faceted object-based research. In 2004, Koppel co-curated her first exhibition Low Sky, Wide Horizon: Art of the Low Countires in Estonia at the Kadriorg Art Museum, a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia. She was one of the authors and editors of the catalogue raisonné of the collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings of the Kadriorg Art Museum, published in 2012. She authored numerous other catalogues and curated a number of exhibitions, several in international collaboration, such as the international research project and exhibition Michel Sittow in the North? Altarpieces in Dialogue in 2021-2023. Koppel has received several awards, including the Annual State Cultural Prize in 2018. That same year, she also received the Knighthood in the Order of Orange-Nassau.

Remember Me: How to Do Provenance Research When Historical Regimes Have Favored “Not To Remember”
Estonia gained independence in 1918, and the Art Museum of Estonia was established in 1919. During the War of Independence (1918–1920), Heritage Protection Societies actively collected art, with many works coming from Baltic German nobles who left Estonia. In 1920, a state-led repatriation campaign brought Estonians back from Russia, during which around 100 paintings, likely used to cover moving costs, were acquired by the Ministry of Education and donated to the museum in 1926. The museum’s collection grew significantly between 1920 and 1940, enriched by donations and sales from departing Baltic Germans and Russian émigrés fleeing the Soviet Union. Besides that, the young Estonian Republic also invested in arts and culture. However, in 1944, the Soviet air raid on Tallinn destroyed much of the museum’s archive, causing irreparable losses. In 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ended collaborations with Russian institutions, cutting off access to provenance records of artworks with Russian ties.

Provenance research ideally traces a work from its present owner back to its origin, but challenges often arise. Even minor discoveries, like old photographs or conservation materials, can provide valuable clues. Sharing findings and exposing gaps in research remains essential. This presentation will explore provenance research challenges and discoveries through case studies from the Dutch and Flemish art collection of the Art Museum of Estonia.

Kersti Tainio

Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki
Kersti Tainio has been working as a curator at the Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery since 2023. She has a strong expertise in archival research, including provenance research, and is specialized in the historical connections between Finnish and Russian private and public collections. She started working on a PhD (working title: Bought Heritage: Russian Revolution in Finnish Museum Collections, 1917-1938) at the University of Helsinki in 2018. This PhD project is currently on hold due to the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Russia-Related Provenances After Russia’s Attack on Ukraine: A Practical and Moral Challenge
The Russian Revolution had a tremendous impact on the dispersal of Russian artworks and other heritage items in museum collections across the globe. Finnish public collections, including the Finnish National Gallery, house a considerable number of such artworks, coming from the Soviet Union from 1917 until 1938. This topic is especially relevant, but often politically sensitive and understudied in countries which share a border and a long history with Russia. After Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine in 2022, research related to Russian provenance has become challenging. In addition to the lack of sources and contacts with the Russian research community, any Russia-related research is now exposed to political disinformation campaigns and other phenomena that severely undermine the freedom of research. In this presentation, the problems of provenance research related to Russia in the turbulent 2020s are made visible. 

Ruben Suykerbuyk

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Ruben Suykerbuyk is curator of old master paintings and sculptures at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. His field of expertise is fifteenth- to seventeenth-century Netherlandish art history, with a focus on religious art and material culture. He is the author of several contributions on Netherlandish painters and draftsmen such as Michiel Coxcie and Frans Floris, tomb monuments and memorial culture in the sixteenth-century Low Countries, and published a monograph on the art, patronage, and religious life in Zoutleeuw’s exceptional church of Saint Leonard.

The Biography of an Artwork
Last April, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen returned a tenth-century ivory representing Maria with child to the heirs of Kunsthaus Drey. This Jewish art dealer from Munich was forced to sell it along with the rest of his trade stock in June 1936 under the Nazi regime. At first glance, the restitution request was a clear call. The forced sale was well documented, resulting in a restitution under the Dutch policy. However, provenance research revealed that the ivory was part of the famous Stroganov collection before. Count Stroganov died in 1910, but his heirs were murdered in 1920 by Bolsheviks. Only one adult with two minor children survived, escaped to Rome and began to sell the collection soon after, including the ivory. How voluntary was this sale? This case is a reminder of the importance of ‘deep’ provenance research beyond WW II and serves as starting point for an exhibition at Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in the Fall of 2025, aiming to heighten the public awareness of the full biographies of artworks.