"Does this belong to you?"

Under the slogan “Does this belong to you?”, we invite you to help us identify works of art whose provenance remains unclear. Some of these objects are what is known as ‘looted art’ – works that were illegally acquired by the former Ostmarkmuseum prior to 1945; the former owners are unknown.

Following the capture of the Veste by the US Army in early May 1945, looting took place. During the clean-up operations, various works of art were found that did not belong to the museum’s collection. As part of a two-year research project, these objects, amongst others, are being examined in greater detail.

In 1946, a total of 89 paintings, drawings and prints were transported from Passau to the so-called Central Collecting Point (CCP) in Munich. At various Central Collecting Points, located in Wiesbaden, Marburg, Offenbach and Celle, amongst other places, the Allies collected works of art that had been stored by the Nazis in palaces, castles or mine shafts to protect them from bombing raids. These included, on the one hand, collections from German museums, but also thousands of objects stolen by the Nazi state both within the German Reich and in the occupied territories. From the Central Collecting Points, those items for which the rightful owners could be identified were returned. The remaining collection was returned to the Oberhausmuseum, amongst other places.

It is currently assumed that the majority of the Passau objects were looted in France and brought to Passau before 1945. Four works from the collection have so far been researched in more detail; they were looted in May and June 1942 from various furniture warehouses in Paris, where the owners had stored them.
You can find more information here. 

However, even the most meticulous research reaches its limits when it comes to many other works. And this is precisely where we ask for your support: signatures need to be deciphered, artists’ names identified, and depicted places or people recognised. Any information can help to trace the rightful owners of these artworks.

The photos you can use for your research, as well as information about the works, are available for download below.

If you can identify any of the people or places shown, please contact our provenance researcher, Dr Anke Gröner, at anke.groener@passau.de.