16 January 2023

Press Invitation: Blechen’s Comeback

Two Oil Sketches by Carl Blechen, Presumed Lost, Return to the Akademie der Künste

Sunday, 22 January, 11 am, Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz
Photo session and closing event of the exhibition SPURENSICHERUNG. Die Geschichte(n) hinter den Werken (PROVENANCE RESEARCH)

This coming Sunday, 22 January, the exhibition SPURENSICHERUNG. Die Geschichte(n) hinter den Werken (PROVENANCE RESEARCH) is closing at the Akademie der Künste. It tells histories and stories behind works that are or were part of the Akademie’s collection, as well as about the people who once owned them. Selected examples introduce a wide audience to the demanding methods and detective work required of provenance research.

The closing event focuses on two oil sketches by Carl Blechen (1798‒1840). The artist, considered one of the outstanding German landscape painters of his time, worked as a professor at the Akademie. For more than 70 years, it was presumed that two of his works ‒ Mühlental bei Amalfi (The Valley of the Mills Near Amalfi) and Tiberiusfelsen auf Capri (Tiberius Rock on Capri) ‒ were lost. Stolen in 1945 from their war-time relocation site at the Neue Reichsmünze (New Mint), the works were consigned to a Berlin auction house from a private collection in 2018. Despite complexities in the chain of evidence and restitution law, the Akademie der Künste successfully repurchased the images with the help and generous support from the Kulturstiftung der Länder (Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States) and the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung. The two works are shown publicly again for the first time in this exhibition.
Their remarkable story will be told in the presence of representatives of the two foundations who provided funding for the reaquisition. Twenty-four works by Blechen remain lost since World War II.

Press Photo Session in the Exhibition
Sunday, 22 January, 11 am
With Dr Stephanie Tasch (Kulturstiftung der Länder), Dr Martin Hoernes (Ernst v. Siemens Kunststiftung) and Werner Heegewaldt (Akademie der Künste)

Closing Event: Blechen’s Comeback (in German)
Sunday, 22 January 2023, 11:30 am
Opening remarks: Werner Heegewaldt
Welcoming addresses: Dr Stephanie Tasch and Dr Martin Hoernes
“Blechen und die Akademie der Künste”, lecture by Anna Schultz
Free admission

Final Days
SPURENSICHERUNG. Die Geschichte(n) hinter den Werken
PROVENANCE RESEARCH
Exhibition on view until 22 January 2023
Tue – Sun, 11 am – 7 pm
Admission € 9/6, free for visitors under 19
Free admission for everyone:
Tuesday, 17 January, 3 – 7 pm
Sunday, 22 January, 11 am – 7 pm
www.adk.de/spurensicherung 

Venue: Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin