Art theft from Gotha

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The courtyard of Friedenstein Castle

The art theft from Gotha is an unsolved burglary in which five paintings were stolen from Friedenstein Castle in Gotha on the night of December 14, 1979 . It is considered the most serious art theft in the history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and one of the most spectacular in post-war German history. In December 2019, it was announced that the five paintings have reappeared.

Sequence of events

Stolen painting by Hans Holbein the Elder Ä. , "Saint Catherine"

On the night of December 14, 1979, the following five paintings were stolen from Friedenstein Castle by unknown perpetrators:

Since then, only black and white photos of the affected pictures, which were exhibited in various rooms of the museum in Friedenstein Castle and which were stolen with the associated picture frames , have been available. A color photograph was only taken of the work “Self-Portrait with Sunflower” before the theft and was not rediscovered until the end of the 2000s during research by the television magazine ttt - titel, thesen, temperamente . The value of the paintings was estimated at around five million GDR marks at the time .

The alarm system installed in the museum at that time was not yet in operation at the time of the break-in, which was carried out with the help of crampons over the third floor of the west facade of the castle. The data from a climate recorder that registered a drop in temperature suggest two in the morning as the time of the theft.

Due to the circumstances of the crime, which suggest a targeted selection of the works, it was possibly a case of contract theft. According to the investigations carried out at the time, both the production method of a found crampon and the alloy of the steel used for it indicated that the crampons used were not made in the GDR. Suspected as perpetrators or clients at the time were both the Gotha-based high - wire artists Geschwister Weisheit and employees of the museum and the princely family of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as well as, after the political change in the GDR , the SED economic functionary Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski . The limitation period for the right to surrender ( § 197 Paragraph 1 Number 2 BGB after 30 years of limitation of the claim to surrender from the property according to § 985 BGB ) expired in December 2009, whereby the city of Gotha and the museum hoped for new information on the whereabouts of the paintings. The current value of the works of art is estimated at around 50 million euros .

Rediscovery 2019

In December 2019 it was announced that the five paintings had been seized. They were in the care of the State Museums in Berlin . There their authenticity was checked in the Rathgen research laboratory . The authenticity of the paintings was confirmed in January 2020.

According to press reports, the owners had previously contacted the Schloss Friedenstein Foundation via a lawyer from southern Germany in July 2018 . After research by the news magazine Der Spiegel , there were initially only negotiations with Knut Kreuch , Lord Mayor of Gotha, and Martin Hoernes , Secretary General of the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation. The lawyer and the consignor of the pictures, a doctor from East Friesland , are accused of extortion and stolen goods . The theft is statute-barred under criminal law , but the West German family could not refer to a “good faith acquisition ”. In the opinion of a lawyer, the Schloss Friedenstein Foundation “never lost its property due to the theft in 1979, regardless of how this theft is called or explained. By handing over the pictures, however, if they are the originals [...], they are again in the possession and property of the rightful owners. "

The paintings were presented from January 20 to 26, 2020 in their original exhibition location, on the upper floor of the Ducal Museum . They were then removed and restored , so that they can be shown again in a special exhibition , probably from May / June 2021 .

According to research by Spiegel magazine, the art thief is the locomotive driver Rudi Bernhardt from Schmalkalden who died in 2016 and who died in Frankfurt am Main in 2016. He had sold the stolen paintings to a couple who were friends.

literature

  • Allmuth Schuttwolf: Loss documentation of the Gotha art collections. Volume 2: The painting collection. Friedenstein Castle Foundation, Gotha 2011, ISBN 978-3-940998-12-5 , p. 21 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Antje Lauschne: Still unclear after 30 years. The Gotha coup. (No longer available online.) In: n-tv.de . December 10, 2009, archived from the original on December 13, 2009 ; accessed on December 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Gotha Castle Museum - paintings from a spectacular GDR art theft are back. Accessed December 6, 2019 (German).
  3. ↑ "Self-Portrait with Sunflower" by Anthonis van Dyck (copy). In: MDR.de. Retrieved December 7, 2019 .
  4. ^ "Saint Katharina" by Hans Holbein the Elder. In: MDR.de. Retrieved December 7, 2019 .
  5. ^ A b c d Ulli Wendelmann: Review: The art theft of Gotha. (No longer available online.) In: DasErste.de. June 14, 2009, archived from the original on May 27, 2010 ; accessed on December 6, 2019 .
  6. ↑ The Gotha Coup. In December 1979, Friedenstein Castle became the scene of an acrobatic break-in that left unsolved mysteries. Article of the Museum Security Network of November 13, 2009.
  7. ↑ High-profile paintings may have surfaced after theft. In: MOZ.de. December 6, 2019, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Resurfaced paintings from “Gotha Art Theft” are real. In: Deutschlandfunk.de. January 18, 2020, accessed January 21, 2020 .
  9. ↑ https://www.mdr.de/thueringen/west-thueringen/kunstdiebstahl-kunstraub-gotha-ddr-bilder-aufgetaucht100.html
  10. ↑ Stefan Trinks: Five masterpieces reappeared. In: FAZ.net. December 6, 2019, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Der Spiegel , issue 50/2019, 7 December 2019, pages 122 f.
  12. ↑ Konstantin von Hammerstein: Painting from largest GDR art theft reappeared. In: Spiegel.de. December 6, 2019, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  13. ^ Stefan Koldehoff, Tobias Timm: Art theft in Gotha - A German-German crime thriller. In: Zeit Online. December 6, 2019, accessed December 7, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Stolen pictures in the Ducal Museum in Gotha. In: MDR.de. January 20, 2020, accessed January 21, 2020 .
  15. ↑ FAZ.net: Gotha's old masters art theft probably cleared up , August 2020
  16. ↑ Konstantin von Hammerstein: Rudi's revenge . In: Der Spiegel 36/2020, pages 36–40