The creation of visual art - U.S. heirs receive restituted Nazi-stolen artwork from museum.
After 83 years, the Museum am Rothenbaum (MARKK) has given back a piece of art that was taken during the Nazi period to its proper owners. The subject is a marble Buddha head which was part of the collection of Johanna Ploschitzki, an artist from Berlin. She escaped to the US in 1939, but her designated recipients for shipping her artworks were seized by the Hamburg Secret State Police in 1941 and were sold off during a public auction by the Hamburg Bailiff's Office shortly afterwards. The Hamburg Museum of Ethnology bought seven Asian art pieces and twenty-five books from that sale.
Ploschitzki, who later changed her name to Hansi Share, and moved to Los Angeles after remarrying, applied for the return of her artworks via her attorney in 1948. She was granted her request as part of the restitution process. She was able to get back the objects and books in the museum, except for the Buddha head whose whereabouts in Hamburg she was unaware of, and the museum's leadership couldn't provide an accurate explanation.
In 2017, the MARKK Director, Prof. Barbara Plankensteiner, started re-orienting the museum, and systematic provenance research projects were started. By 2019, during the preparation of the exhibition "Steppen and Silk Roads", it became clear that the Buddha head was an example of Nazi loot. Further, the question of why the Buddha head was still in the museum could be answered. Then, in 2021, the museum received inquiries from Hansi Share's legal representatives, which caused the official restitution process to begin.
Hamburg's Cultural Senator Carsten Brosda (SPD) stated, "Part of dealing with the injustices of the Nazi era includes comprehensively and fully uncovering the origins of our museum's possessions and returning looted cultural property." He continued, "I am therefore delighted that the historical Buddha head can now be given to the heirs of its original owner." Plankensteiner extended her apologies to the heirs, admitting, "I'm sorry for the cover-up tactics used by the museum in the 1950s." "I'm sorry it took so long for justice to be served."
Steven Maass, who represented the heirs of Hansi Share, expressed his contentment with the return of the Buddha head, which had been confiscated from her art collection by the Nazis. He noted that many other artworks from the confiscated collection are still not returned.
