Spoliation reports

Aspertini, Amico

Satire on the Holy League formed by Julius II against the French; A man at l seated on armour, reading from a scroll, a man beside him with a dove and crown, a hen below him and a snake around his ankle, a figure at r helping two others.

• Materials: Pen and brown ink, with brown, red and yellow wash and black chalk, heightened with white, on beige prepared paper. +
• Dimensions: 231.00mm x 345.00mm
• Acquisition: Bought by the British Museum from Gilhofer & Ranschburg
• Reference: 1939,1014.148

Provenance

Ex-collection: Lawrence, Thomas [Sir]
Gilhofer & Ranschburg *

Questions in the operative period

* Provenance post Lawrence
* Date of acquisition by Gilhofer & Ranschburg

Additional Information

+ Inscribed on backing: "Barb. giorgion1494 Allegorie del [expedition de?]/Charles VIII a Naples".
+ Inscribed on mount: "Caraicature politique attribue a Holbein [...]"
+ See Exhibition Catalogue: 'Italian 16th and 17th Century Drawings', Tokyo/Nagoya, 1996, No 34.
+ Lit: M. Faietti and D. Scaglietti Kelescian, 'Amico Aspertini', Modena, 1995, No. 51, pp. 2657 (with previous literature, A. Nesselrath to publish on the drawing's iconography)

Baldung, Hans (formerly attributed to Albrecht Dürer)

The Rape of Europa, design for a glass-painting

• Materials: Charcoal; inscribed with a false Dürer monogram
• Dimensions: 275.00mm x 275.00mm; roundel
• Acquisition: Bequeathed by Mrs Rosi Schilling through the National Art Collections Fund in memory of: Edmund Schilling
• Reference: 1997,0712.15

Provenance

Ex-collection: Lubomirski Museum, Lemberg/Lvov (the Dürer drawings were not listed in the 1820s inventory, but referred to in a document of c.1850 as a deposit by the family)
Ex-collection: Prince Georg Lubomirski
Edmund Schilling (acquired 1954 at Colnaghi's)

Additional Information

+ This drawing is one of 30 drawings (most by Albrecht Dürer) which were stolen by the Nazis in 1941 when they invaded Lvov, then in Poland, today in the Ukraine (Lviv).
The museum had closed in 1939 after the town was occupied by the Russians; today, its contents are divided between Lviv and the Ossolinsky Institute in Poland.
At the end of the War, the Americans found the drawings hidden in an Austrian salt-mine. After many years of debate, the drawings were returned in 1950 to Georg Lubomirski, the descendant of the founder of the museum, who sold them in 1954.
Following claims from the state of Poland, the museums who currently own the drawings decided in 2001 to coordinate their research into the status of the original Lubomirski Museum and concluded that legal ownership of the drawings reverted to the family in the 1940s and that consequently the Americans had acted correctly by returning the drawings to Georg Lubomirski in 1950.
+ See J. Rowlands,'German Drawings from a Private Collection, 1984, no.22;
+ G.Bartrum,'Apollo', Nov. CXLVI, 1997, pp.52f;
+ M. Bailey,'Art Newspaper', no. 47, 1995, pp. 1 and 6; no.48, May 1995, p.5; no. 84, Sept.1998 p.4
+ A. Juzwenko,'The Fate of the Lubomirski Dürers: recovering the Treasures of the Ossolinski National Institute', Wroclaw, 2004, p.31, p.58, no.25

Barye, Antoine Louis

Lion on the prowl; Lion in profile to l, undulating scrubland beyond.

• Materials: Watercolour and bodycolour, strengthened with gum; paper scraped; Signed.+
• Dimensions: 263.00mm x 368.00mm
• Acquisition: Bequeathed to BM by: Mange de Hauke, César
• Reference: 1968,0210.27

Provenance

Ex-collection: Lefuel*
Ex-collection: Schoeller, A*

Questions in the operative period

* Dates of acquisition and disposal by Lefuel
* Details and dates of acquisition and disposal by Schoeller
* Date and details of acquisition by Mange de Hauke.

Additional Information

+ Two exhibition labels attached to back of modern mount for the Paris exhibitions in 1942 and 1956 (owners' names not given).
+ See P H Hulton,'The César Mange de Hauke Bequest', exhibition catalogue, London, British Museum, 1968,no.6.

Blakey, Nicholas

An Allegory on Poetic Inspiration with Mercury and Apollo; Unidentified book illustration with Mercury and Apollo

• Materials: Graphite on prepared vellum,
• Dimensions: 125mmX73mm
• Acquisition: Purchased from Colnaghi who acquired it at Sotheby's, 16 October 1946, lot 82 (anonymous collector, consigned to the sale by Bennett & Bennett)
• Reference: 1946,1116.2

Provenance

Ex Collection: Elhanan Bicknell
Feldmann, Dr Arthur (Lucerne, Gilhofer and Ranschburg, 2728 June 1934, lot 36; bought in)

Questions in the operative period

* Provenance between Bicknell and Feldmann
* Provenance between Feldmann and Sotheby's sale.

Additional Information

A claim was made on 13 May 2002 for this drawing (and three others by Parmigianino, a follower of Martin Schongauer and Johann Martin Schmidt by the descendants of Dr Arthur Feldmann of Brno, Czechoslovakia (1877-1941).
The Trustees of the British Museum are persuaded that these four drawings once belonged to Dr Feldmann. They accept that the drawings were wrongfully taken from him by the Gestapo on 15 March 1939 and that the request for their return ought, morally, to be acceded to. It was not clear whether the Trustees had the legal power to meet the claim and dispose of objects in the Museum's collection. They applied for the authoritative guidance of the Attorney General and the Courts on the question whether the Attorney General had the legal power to authorise the Trustees to meet moral claims in exceptional circumstances such as these. The Court's decision in May 2005 was that the British Museum Trustees were not able to meet such moral claims under existing law, and that they were bound by their responsibilities as Trustees and the British Museum Act (1963) to assert their title to objects in the British Museum collection. The claim was finally settled in 2006, after the claimants and the British Museum had jointly proposed to the Spoliation Advisory Panel that the heirs should receive compensation for the loss of the drawings, and that the drawings should remain in the British Museum. The Panel's report published on 27 April 2006 recommended that the heirs receive an ex gratia payment from the government in compensation for the loss of the drawings.The payment was made in May 2006.

Corot, Jean Baptiste Camille

Portrait of an unknown young woman reclining; full-length study, her head and shoulders supported at r, leaning on her l hand and holding her r hand up near her neck, barefoot with l leg extended and r leg bent at the knee.c.1835

• Materials: Graphite +
• Dimensions: 248.00mm x 385.00mm
• Acquisition: Bequeathed to BM by Mange de Hauke, César
• Reference: 1968,0210.21

Provenance

Ex-collection: Corot, Jean Baptiste Camille (sale, Paris, 31 May 2 June, 1875)
Ex-collection: Rouart, Henri (1833-1912; sale, Paris, December, 1912, lot 19, with illustration)
Ex-collection: Rouart, Ernest (1874-1942; Henri Rouart's son)
Mange de Hauke by 1968* +

Questions in the operative period

* Date of disposal by Ernest Rouart
* Date and details of acquisition by Mange de Hauke

Additional Information

+ Stamped: "VENTE/COROT" (Frits Lugt,'Les marques de collections de dessins et d'estampes' Amsterdam 1921, no. 460).Six labels attached to back of mount relate to exhibitions.
+ See: A. Robaut'L'oeuvre de Corot' Paris, 1905,IV, No.2780 (repr.I, p.74)
+ Lent by Ernest Rouart to the Royal Academy in 1932.
+ The César Mange de Hauke Bequest, catalogue of an exhibition at the BM, 1968, No.5.

Follower of Schongauer, Martin

St Dorothy with the Christ child; 1508; The saint WL standing to front, with long, loose curling hair, holding up the hem of her skirt in her l hand, a basket in her r hand, with a small child holding on to the base of it.

• Materials: Pen and black and brown ink
• Dimensions: Dimensions: 208.00mm x 133.00mm
• Acquisition: Bequeathed by Campbell Dodgson
• Reference: 1949,0411.98

Provenance

Excollection: Desperet, E ( sale, Paris, Clement, 713 July1865, lot 173)
Excollection: Posonyi, Alexander Emil
Ex-collection: Lanna, Adalbert von (sale, Stuttgart, Gutekunst, 7 May1910, lot 505)
Excollection: Feldmann, Dr. Arthur (Lucerne, Gilhofer and Ranschburg, 2728 June 1934, lot 194; bought in)

Questions in the operative period

* Any provenance details between Lanna and Feldmann
* Any provenance details between Feldmann and Dodgson
* Acquisition date and details by Dodgson

Additional Information

+ See Otto Benesch,' Zur Österreichischen Handzeichnungen der Gotik und Renaissance' in Monatsscrift für Kultur und Politik, i, Heft 3, 1936, pp.245251 (reprinted in Otto Benesch Collected Writings, vol. iii, German and Austrian Art of the 15th and 16th Centuries, edited by Eva Benesch, 1972, pp.390 396). Otto Benesch acted as advisor to Dr. Arthur Feldmann in the formation of his drawings collection.
+ Benesch records the drawing in the possession of A. Feldmann in 1936
+ See also John Rowlands, 'German Drawings in the British Museum', London, 1993, no.23
A claim was made on 13 May 2002 for this drawing (and three others by Niccolo dell'Abbate, Nicholas Blakey and Johann Martin Schmidt) by the descendants of Dr Arthur Feldmann of Brno, Czechoslovakia (1877-1941). The Trustees of the British Museum are persuaded that these four drawings once belonged to Dr Feldmann. They accept that the drawings were wrongfully taken from him by the Gestapo on 15 March 1939 and that the request for their return ought, morally, to be acceded to. It was not clear whether the Trustees had the legal power to meet the claim and dispose of objects in the Museum's collection. They applied for the authoritative guidance of the Attorney General and the Courts on the question whether the Attorney General had the legal power to authorise the Trustees to meet moral claims in exceptional circumstances such as these. The Court's decision in May 2005 was that the British Museum Trustees were not able to meet such moral claims under existing law, and that they were bound by their responsibilities as Trustees and the British Museum Act (1963) to assert their title to objects in the British Museum collection. The claim was finally settled in 2006, after the claimants and the British Museum had jointly proposed to the Spoliation Advisory Panel that the heirs should receive compensation for the loss of the drawings, and that the drawings should remain in the British Museum. The Panel's report published on 27 April 2006 recommended that the heirs receive an ex gratia payment from the government in compensation for the loss of the drawings. The payment was made in May 2006.

Géricault, Jean Louis André Théodore

'The Coal Wagon',or 'Le Chariot, Route de Londres'; two men leading three horses pulling the wagon through an archway at left, a man sitting on top of the coal smoking a pipe, steamship on the river behind and buildings on the horizon.c.1821

• Materials: Watercolour. +
• Dimensions: 217.00mm x 277.00mm
• Acquisition: Bequeathed to BM by Mange de Hauke, Cesar +
• Reference: 1968,0210.28

Provenance

Ex-collection: Benoit-Champy*
Ex-collection: Hainguerlot [Baron] *
Ex-collection: Robin, F *
Mange de Hauke by 1953.*

Questions in the operative period

* Date and details of disposal by Benoit-Champny
* Date and details of acquisition and disposal by Baron Hainquerlot
* Date and details of acquisition and disposal by Robin
* Date and details of acquisition by de Hauke.

Additional Information

+ There are exhibition and transport labels on the back of the mount.
+ See The César Mange de Hauke Bequest, catalogue of an exhibition at the BM, no.3
+ See G. Bazin, Géricault, vol. VII, 1997, no.2167.

Huber, Wolfgang

The Last Judgement; groups of nude figures with arms raised and their heads' heads tilted up to heaven, with Christ seated on a rainbow with his feet on a sphere at centre.1510

• Materials: Pen and black ink, on orange prepared paper.
• Dimensions: 288.00mm x 200.00mm
• Acquisition: Bought by BM from A. Rosenthal dealer in Oxford
• Reference: 1938,0108.1

Provenance

Rosenthal* +

Questions in the operative period

* Provenance before A. Rosenthal
* Date and details of acquisition by Rosenthal.

Additional Information

+ Exh.cat., Michael Craig Martin, 'Drawing the Line', National Touring Exhibitions from the South Bank Centre, 1995, no.96.

Jongkind, Johan Barthold

'Le Murier'; Landscape with a horse and cart passing along an avenue of trees towards foreground, two figures standing on the road at l, buildings in the distance at the foot of hills. 1880

• Materials: Watercolour, with bodycolour, heightened with white, over black chalk.
• Dimensions: 225.00mm x 481.00mm
• Acquisition: Bequeathed by César Mange de Hauke 1968.
• Reference: 1968,0210.29

Provenance

Ex-collection: Jean Dollfus
Ex-collection: Hector Brame
Mange de Hauke *

Questions in the operative period

* Date and details of disposal by Dollfus
* Date and details of acquisition/disposal by Brame
* Date and details of acquisition by Mange de Hauke

Additional Information

+ Signed and dated: "29 Juin 1880"

Kulmbach, Hans von

The magus Melchior; the king is wearing robes, pendant and turban, and holds an ornate covered cup in his right hand. c.1513

• Materials: Pen and brown ink, with grey wash, over traces of black chalk; the four corners of the sheet, which were cut, have been made up
• Dimensions: 360.00mm x 265.00mm
• Acquisition: Purchased from: August Laube & Sohn (Zurich)
• Reference: 1967,0617.11

Provenance

Ex-collection: Meyer-Hildburghausen
Ex-collection: Meyer, Arnold Otto
Ex-collection: Bondy, Oscar
Ex-collection: Posse, Hermann
Ex-collection Mrs Oscar Bondy

Questions in the operative period

-

Additional Information

+ 'Hermann Posse' is probably an error for Hans Posse, who acquired material for Hitler's museum in Linz. The Trustees were informed that the drawing had been returned to Bondy's widow in the 1960s, and that she had given it to Laube to sell. The Federal Monuments Office in Austria have confirmed that the drawing was officially restituted to Elisabeth Anna Bondy on 30 November, 1966.
+ See John Rowlands, 'German Drawings in the British Museum', London, 1993, no. 412

Parmigianino, formerly attributed to Niccolo dell'Abbate

The Holy Family; the Infant Christ standing near the seated Virgin, who is in conversation with Joseph

• Materials: Pen and greybrown ink, on grey paper
• Dimensions: 299.00mm x 202.00mm
• Acquisition: Purchased from Colnaghi who acquired it at Sotheby's, 16 October 1946, lot 82 (anonymous collector, consigned to the sale by Bennett & Bennett); funded by H L Florence Fund
• Reference: 1946,1116.1

Provenance

Excollection: Gelosi [Conte] (see Frits Lugt, 'Les marques de collections de dessins et d'estampes, Amsterdam 1921, no.545)
Excollection: Feldmann, Dr. Arthur (Lucerne, Gilhofer and Ranschburg, 2728 June 1934, lot 202; bought in)

Questions in the operative period

* Any provenance details between Gelosi (probably late 18th Century collector) and Feldmann
* Provenance between Feldmann and Sotheby's sale.

Additional Information

A claim was made on 13 May 2002 for this drawing (and three others by Nicholas Blakey, a follower of Martin Schongauer and Johann Martin Schmidt) by the descendants of Dr Arthur Feldmann of Brno, Czechoslovakia (1877-1941). The Trustees of the British Museum are persuaded that these four drawings once belonged to Dr Feldmann. They accept that the drawings were wrongfully taken from him by the Gestapo on 15 March 1939 and that the request for their return ought, morally, to be acceded to. It was not clear whether the Trustees had the legal power to meet the claim and dispose of objects in the Museum's collection. They applied for the authoritative guidance of the Attorney General and the Courts on the question whether the Attorney General had the legal power to authorise the Trustees to meet moral claims in exceptional circumstances such as these. The Court's decision in May 2005 was that the British Museum Trustees were not able to meet such moral claims under existing law, and that they were bound by their responsibilities as Trustees and the British Museum Act (1963) to assert their title to objects in the British Museum collection. The claim was finally settled in 2006, after the claimants and the British Museum had jointly proposed to the Spoliation Advisory Panel that the heirs should receive compensation for the loss of the drawings, and that the drawings should remain in the British Museum. The Panel's report published on 27 April 2006 recommended that the heirs receive an ex gratia payment from the government in compensation for the loss of the drawings. The payment was made in May 2006.

Prins, Johannes Huibert

A painter with his family in an interior with pictures on the wall behind, and a portfolio propped up against a chair to l. 1796

• Materials: Brush drawing in grey ink and grey wash, with watercolour. +
• Dimensions: 329.00mm x 408.00mm
• Acquisition: Bought by BM from A. Duits, 1939.
• Reference: 1939,0711.2

Provenance

Duits, A. *

Questions in the operative period

* Provenance before A. Duits
* Date and details of acquisition by Duits.

Additional Information

+ Inscribed and dated: \"J.H. Prins f 1796\"

Prud'hon, Pierre Paul

Nude woman standing: sometimes called 'La Navigation' or 'La rame'; WL, turned to left and leaning forward, with her left knee bent. c.1810

• Materials: Black chalk, heightened with white, on blue-grey paper made up with strips at top and bottom. +
• Dimensions: 625.00mm x 415.00mm
• Acquisition: Bequeathed to BM by Mange de Hauke, César, 1968 +
• Reference: 1968,0210.18

Provenance

Ex-collection: De Boisfremont, Charles-Pompée Le Boulanger (1773-1838; Lugt 353); his son, Oscar de Boisfremont (sold Paris, 9.iv.1870, lot 46, purchased by Rouart)
Ex-collection: Rouart, Henri (1833-1912; sold Paris, 16.xii.1912, lot 271, purchased by Chialiva) *
Ex-collection: Chialiva (sold to Henri's son, Ernest Rouart in 1917)
Ex-collection: Ernest Rouart (1874-1942)
Ex-collection: T.Ampion by 1951
Ex-collection: Galerie Hector Brame, Paris
Mange de Hauke by 1968 *

Questions in the operative period

* Dates and details of acquisition disposal by Ampion and Galerie Hector Brame; date and details of acquisition by Mange de Hauke.

Additional Information

See'The César Mange de Hauke Bequest', catalogue of an exhibition at the BM, no. 1.; exhibition catalogue, British Museum, 1968, no. 1; P.Stein,'French Drawings: Clouet to Seurat', exhibition catalogue, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005, no. 68

Schmidt, Martin Johann

Virgin and Child adored by St Elizabeth and the infant St John

• Materials: Pen and brown ink with grey wash, heightened with white on blue paper
• Dimensions: 106 mm x 159 mm
• Acquisition: Purchased from Colnaghi who acquired it at Sotheby\\\'s, 16 October 1946, lot 82 (anonymous collector, consigned to the sale by Bennett & Bennett); funded by H L Florence Fund
• Reference: 1946,1116.3

Provenance

Excollection: A. von Lanna (1836-1909)
Excollection: Novotny

Questions in the operative period

* Any provenance details between Novotny and the Sotheby's sale.

Additional Information

A claim was made on 13 May 2002 for this drawing (and three others by Parmigianino, Nicholas Blakey and a follower of Martin Schongauer) by the descendants of Dr Arthur Feldmann of Brno, Czechoslovakia (1877-1941).
The Trustees of the British Museum are persuaded that these four drawings once belonged to Dr Feldmann. They accept that the drawings were wrongfully taken from him by the Gestapo on 15 March 1939 and that the request for their return ought, morally, to be acceded to.
However, it was not clear whether the Trustees had the legal power to meet the claim and dispose of objects in the Museum\'s collection. They applied for the authoritative guidance of the Attorney General and the Courts on the question whether the Attorney General had the legal power to authorise the Trustees to meet moral claims in exceptional circumstances such as these.
The Court\'s decision in May 2005 was that the British Museum Trustees were not able to meet such moral claims under existing law, and that they were bound by their responsibilities as Trustees and the British Museum Act (1963) to assert their title to objects in the British Museum collection. The claim was finally settled in 2006, after the claimants and the British Museum had jointly proposed to the Spoliation Advisory Panel that the heirs should receive compensation for the loss of the drawings, and that the drawings should remain in the British Museum. The Panel\'s report published on 27 April 2006 recommended that the heirs receive an ex gratia payment from the government in compensation for the loss of the drawings. The payment was made in May 2006.