Art and Antiques GmbH
| Art and Antiques GmbH | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Company with limited liability |
| founding | 20th February 1973 |
| resolution | 1990 |
| Seat | East Berlin , German Democratic Republic |
| Branch | Foreign trade operation |
The Art and Antiques GmbH , also briefly KuA, was a foreign trade operation , which the GDR served to the export of used, until then, in public or private-owned goods and antiques as quickly as possible value to generate gains. The company was part of the Commercial Coordination Department of the GDR Ministry for Internal German Trade, Foreign Trade and Material Supply . The company existed from 1973 to 1990.
history
The company was founded in 1973 as part of a decree by the GDR Prime Minister Willi Stoph . A suggestion came from Kurt Hager , member of the Politburo . The company belonged to the area of commercial coordination and was subordinate to Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski , an " officer on special operations " of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) with the rank of colonel . With the help of the company, works of art, which until then belonged to the GDR Museum Fund , were to be sold to the value of 55 million currency marks in order to improve the GDR's financial situation, which was characterized by a negative balance of payments . In 1974 the KuA took over the private company Antikhandel Pirna . From the beginning of 1974 the KuA had a monopoly on exporting and importing antiques, art and used cultural goods. In order to make such items usable for export, the company ensured through the MfS that museums were pressured to sort out certain stocks and that collectors and antique dealers were deliberately criminalized, arrested, convicted and expropriated. Important employees of the KuA were also unofficial employees (IM) of the MfS. In order to criminalize the collectors and antique dealers, they were sent an inflated income tax bill on the grounds that they were trading in works of art at home. Since they were unable to pay their tax debts, their collections were seized and sold to the KuA by the GDR financial organs.
Items exported included paintings, porcelain, antique furniture, glass items, and coins. The main buyers of the items were wholesalers in the Federal Republic of Germany , Belgium and the Netherlands as well as antique and used goods dealers worldwide. The KuA also used front men and front companies as intermediaries for the sale . Over time, the company expanded its range to include paving stones, railway sleepers, beer tables, peat, cut flowers and other products. To do this, it also imported office equipment and special machines from the West. The KuA also got into the international stamp trade and sold stamps from the time of National Socialism , the trade of which was officially banned in the GDR.
The KuA operated a warehouse in Mühlenbeck near Berlin. From 1973 to 1989 the company had sales of around 430 million DM. Its profit rose from 11 million currency marks in 1974 to 37 million currency marks in 1989. In November 1989 it had 81 contracts with suppliers. In the course of the German reunification , the company ceased its export activities in the fourth quarter of 1989, but without the decision becoming legally binding. Following a resolution by the Council of Ministers , the company was officially dissolved with effect from January 30, 1990.
In 1993, an investigative committee of the German Bundestag dealt intensively with the work of the Kunst und Antiquitäten GmbH.
Since 2017, approx. 74 running meters of files from the company's business activities have been available in the German Federal Archives for online research. They are also used for provenance research .
See also
literature
- Ulf Bischof: The art and antiques GmbH in the field of commercial coordination (writings on cultural property protection, volume 9), De Gruyter law , Berlin 2003, ISBN 978-3-89949-048-0
- Günter Blutke: Obscure shops with art and antiques. A crime report, LinksDruck Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 978-3-86153-085-5
- Andreas Förster : Treasure Robber. The Search of the State Security for Nazi Gold , Edition Berolina (Berliner Buchverlagsgesellschaft), Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-95841-050-3 (originally published by Ch. Links Verlag , Berlin 2000)
- Third partial report on the practices of the area of commercial coordination in the procurement and recycling of works of art and antiques , German Bundestag , 12th electoral term , printed matter 12/4500 of March 15, 1993
- The art piece of the GDR. How a state-owned company turns paintings and antiques into foreign currency. In: art magazin 2/84 (February 1984). Pp. 72-75
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d “Achieve maximum profits” , in: Der Spiegel No. 19 of May 6, 1991, accessed on Sep. 30. 2017
- ↑ Förster 2016, p. 42
- ↑ Förster 2016, p. 43
- ↑ a b Vanja Budde : In search of lost treasures , in: Deutschlandfunk Kultur, May 4, 2015, accessed on Sep 30. 2017
- ↑ Förster 2016, p. 42 f.
- ↑ Bischof 2003, p. 152
- ↑ a b c files of the KoKo-Betriebs Kunst und Antiquitäten GmbH developed for provenance research , in: website of the Federal Archives , article from June 21, 2017, accessed on March 9, 2019
- ↑ Förster 2016, p. 43 f.
- ↑ a b Review by Claudia Herstatt : So stahl die DDR , in: Die Zeit No. 33 of August 7, 2003, accessed on Sep. 30. 2017
- ↑ Blutke 1994, p. 155 f.
- ↑ Third partial report on the practices of the area of commercial coordination in the procurement and utilization of works of art and antiques , German Bundestag , 12th electoral period, printed matter 12/4500 of March 15, 1993, accessed at [1] on Sep 29. 2017