Provenance research

During this time, art historian Maike Brüggen examined the paintings and various objects from other collections of the museum from the years 1933-1945 with regard to their past. The focus was on questions about the previous owners and the reasons for their sales, donations or endowments to the museum. This is done by identifying and deciphering inscriptions on the back, artist and owner notes on paintings or handwritten entries, dedications, initials or stamps on books, as well as by researching previous owners in catalogs, files and sales documents or letters.

In the event of unlawful confiscation or involuntary sale due to National Socialist persecution, the museum endeavors to reach a fair and equitable solution with the rightful owners on the basis of the Washington Principles and the Joint Declaration. One example of a successful restitution of a painting to the heirs of the original owners is Hans Thoma's painting "Summer (Woman with Child)".

All previously unknown additions to the house from the period between 1933 and 1945 have been published in the LostArt Internet database of the German Lost Art Foundation. Some of the research findings were included in the first presentation of the permanent exhibition at the Historisches Museum Frankfurt in 2012. The focus here is on the art collection of the Jewish collector Julius Heyman (1863-1925). The art-historically significant Heyman collection of small works of art, handicrafts and paintings from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque periods was initially presented in staged period rooms in Heyman's home at Palmstraße 16 in Frankfurt. Heyman bequeathed the house and its art collection to the City of Frankfurt and stipulated that the house and its inventory should be made accessible to the public and incorporated into the Frankfurt Historical Museum as a separate department.

Contrary to the founder's wishes, it was decided to dissolve the collection in 1940. Some of the art objects were given to the various municipal museums and some to the art trade. The aim of the project was - and work is continuing on completing the data - to trace the collection items in order to reunite this important collection, at least virtually.
One prominent object from the former Julius Heyman Collection that has already been processed is the coat of arms disc of St. Jerome.

In several years of meticulous research work, the longstanding curator Jürgen Steen dedicated himself to the "looted silver" project, which focused on silver objects from the house with unclear provenance. Some of the objects suspected of having been expropriated were presented in the museum's permanent exhibition from 2007, together with the complex history of their acquisition. Jürgen Steen remains involved in provenance research even after his retirement and continues to do research for the Historical Museum on a voluntary basis. It is thanks to his commitment that nine objects originating from the Museum of Jewish Antiquities have been identified. The museum was vandalized during the Progromnacht in 1938, its collections partially destroyed and objects transferred to the Historical Museum. In August 2018, the identified objects were handed over to the Jewish Museum Frankfurt as the ideal successor institution to the Museum of Jewish Antiquities (most of these objects were restituted from there to the Jewish Community of Frankfurt, but given to the Jewish Museum on permanent loan).

In cooperation with the Museum Angewandte Kunst, the Weltkulturen Museum and the Jewish Museum, a joint exhibition project was developed in 2016, which was incorporated into the exhibition at the Historisches Museum entitled "Purchased. Collected. Looted? The journey of things into the museum". The exhibition, which ran from May to October 2018 on the upper floor of the new building, explored the traces of "legalized robbery", as a result of which Jewish fellow citizens were expropriated. Their possessions could be acquired under "favorable" conditions by private individuals and public institutions. The Historical Museum also took advantage of this to supplement and expand its collections. As part of the exhibition, objects from the collection were asked about their origin and ownership history. This was supplemented by a city laboratory project entitled "Difficult Things", which focused on suspected looted property in private ownership.