Lentos Art Museum

History

One hundred twenty important art works from the collection of the Berlin art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt (1888–1965), including paintings and graphic works by Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, Nolde, Corinth and Pechstein, became the foundation of the collection of the New Gallery of the City of Linz after World War II. Adding to these holdings, in 1953, Linz made the New Gallery a city museum with an active exhibition and acquisition programs. In 1998, the decision was made to build the Lentos Museum, which opened in May 2003. The museum presents significant themes and issues of contemporary art by displaying works of various schools of modern art from the Lentos collection and by exhibiting works of 20th century art on loan from other museums.

The collection

The presentation of the collection is underpinned by the desire to restore the chronological sequence of creative works that are part of an important movement or style. The starting point is the 19th century. On display are works by Gustav Klimt, Gabriele Muenter, Valie Export, and Herbert Bayer.

The museum collection includes around 1,500 works from the areas of painting, sculpture and object art, over 10,000 works on paper, and about 850 photographs, including significant contributions to the development of artistic photography by Alexander Rodtschenko and Man Ray. The earliest works among the museum's holdings are from the first half of the 19th century including Caspar David Friedrich and Johann Baptist Reiter. From the area of classical modernism the Lentos collection includes important paintings by Egon Schiele, Kokoschka, Corinth, and Max Pechstein.

The collection also covers the inter-war period with works from German and Austrian Expressionism and New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit). The period after 1945 is exemplified with works and ensembles of international art, including paintings, sculptures and graphic works by Karel Appel, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Maria Lassnig, Markus Lüpertz, Arnulf Rainer, Eduardo Chillida, Tony Cragg, Gottfried Helnwein, Sean Scully, Anthony Caro, Elke Krystufek, and Ludwig Merwart.

Internationality of the sculpture collection

The sculpture collection holdings are continuously expanded through active acquisition policies. Since May 2004 the Viennese curator, critic and journalist Stella Rollig has been the director of the Lentos Art museum. In addition to the existing collection, modern art and the most current trends in contemporary art are presented in changing exhibitions.

Nazi-looted art and provenance research

For the Lentos Museum of Art the legacy of the Gurlitt Collection is "as brilliant as it is problematic". Wolfgang Gurlitt, a close contact of the director of the Hitler Führermuseum, Hermann Voss, was investigated for Nazi art looting in 1946, along with other members of the Gurlitt family. Wolfgang Gurlitt's art collection, which the museum purchased in, included artworks that had been looted by Nazis from Jewish collectors. The museum undertook provenance research to establish the origins and ownership history of the collection and the city of Linz created a dedicated provenance working group in 2007. As of 2019, 64 works of art had been investigated, of which 13 paintings were found to have looted art. Artworks restituted to the families of the Jewish collectors plundered by the Nazis include:

• 1999: Lesser Ury, Die Näherin [The seamstress] (Inv. no. 138)
• 2003: Egon Schiele, Stadt am Fluss [Town on the river] (Inv. no. 13) restituted to the heirs of Daisy Hellmann
• 2009: Gustav Klimt, Damenbildnis [Portrait of a lady] (Inv. no. 149) restituted to the heirs of Aranka Munk
• 2011: Wilhelm Trübner, Bildnis Carl Schuh [Portrait of Carl Schuh] (Inv. no. 104*) Settlement* with the heirs of Harry Fuld
• 2012: 6 paintings by Anton Romako: Mädchen mit aufgestütztem Arm (Tochter des Künstlers), 1875, Inv. no. 10; Der Zweikampf (Kämpfende Ritter), Inv. no. 81; Zigeunerlager, Inv. no. 83; Mädchen mit Früchten, um 1875, Inv. no. 103; Ungarische Puszta (Strohschober in Bálványos), about1880, Inv. no. 104; Bildnis Karl Schwach, 1854, Inv. no. 145 restituted to the heirs of Oskar und Malvine Reichel (on loan to the Lentos)
• 2015: Lovis Corinth, Othello, 1894, (Inv. Nr. 23) and Lovis Corinth, Schwabing (Blick aus dem Atelierfenster), 1891, (Inv. Nr. 24) restituted to the heirs of Jean and Ida Baer
• 2015: Emil Nolde, Maiwiese (Maienwiese) [Meadow in May], 1915, (Inv. Nr. 94) restituted to the heirs of Dr. Otto Siegfried Julius

Not all the artworks have been verified yet and provenance research continues.

Bibliography

• Van Uffelen, Chris. Contemporary Museums - Architecture, History, Collections, Braun Publishing, 2010, , pages 146–149.

References

References

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2. (2020-12-22). "Bauten – Weber Hofer Partner AG".
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4. "Eine neue Seite {{!}} www.lentos.at".
5. "The Collection". Lentos Kunstmuseum.
6. "Lentos Art Museum » Linz Tourism".
7. "Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz - WOLFGANG GURLITT. FAIRY PRINCE".
8. "Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU) Reports 1945-1946 and ALIU Red Flag Names List and Index".
9. Dittmar, Peter. (2013-11-04). "Raubkunst: Die Gurlitts, ein deutscher Kunsthändler-Clan". DIE WELT.
10. "Austrian exhibition to reveal story of Wolfgang Gurlitt, art dealer for the Nazis turned museum director".
11. "Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz - Provenance research".
12. "Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz - Provenance research".
13. Artdaily. "Sotheby's to Sell Restituted Masterpiece by Egon Schiele".
14. (2010-05-28). "Heirs of Nazi victim to sell restituted Klimt". Reuters.
15. "Linz restitutes Nazi Looted Art Again".
16. "Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz - Provenance research".