Max Kunze

Max Kunze (born October 26, 1944 in Schotten ) is a German classical archaeologist .

Life

Max Kunze studied Classical Archeology and Classical Philology at the Humboldt University of Berlin (HU) between 1964 and 1969 . This was followed by a position as a research assistant at the Münzkabinett until 1971 . In 1974 he received his doctorate from the Humboldt University on a topic of classical Roman relief art . From 1969 to 1982 he was director of the Winckelmann Museum in Stendal and secretary of the Winckelmann Society , and from 1978 to 1990 he was a managing board member of the society. From 1982 to 1993 he was director of the East Berlin Collection of Antiquities at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. He has authored several guides and introductions to the collection in the Pergamon Museum . He has been President of the Winckelmann Society since 1990, was Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University in 1992 and in 1993/94 with a research assignment at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 1998 he was a lecturer at Antalya University . In 1996 he completed his habilitation at the University of Mannheim , where he has been an honorary professor since 2001 . He is head of the department for the historical-critical publication of Winckelmann's writings at the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz . Since 1990 he has been the editor of the Winckelmann Society's publications as well as the initiator and publisher of commercial printing. Leaflets from the Winckelmann Society and the Stendaler Winckelmann Research . For the Winckelmann Society he is the editor of numerous exhibition catalogs and co-editor of the history of ancient art as well as the Winckelmann edition JJ Winckelmann. Writings and bequests . In October 2009 an international colloquium was held in Berlin on the occasion of Kunze's 65th birthday.

Exhibition of a supposedly antique portrait of Alexander in the Winckelmann Museum in Stendal

The exhibition of the Winckelmann Society in Stendal , which was organized by Max Kunze and with the collaboration of Sascha Kansteiner and Moritz Kiderlen in 2000, is still controversial today and thus ensured national awareness. A supposedly antique bronze bust of Alexander the Great from the possession of the dubious antique dealer Robin Symes was on display in the Winckelmann Museum . The top of a statue is said to be an ancient bronze original and renew knowledge of the portrait of the Macedonian ruler. The archaeologist Stefan Lehmann denied the authenticity and assigned the bronze image to the forgery workshop of the “ Spanish master ”. This led to conflicts with parts of the Winckelmann Society and its President Max Kunze. Due to the nature of the allegations raised in this connection, Lehmann came into conflict with parts of the Winckelmann Society, which expelled him on December 12, 2009 at the society's general meeting. This was followed by a judicial dispute between Max Kunze and the Winckelmann Society on the plaintiff's side and Stefan Lehmann as the defendant. In 2012 Lehmann made a public, written declaration of honor in which he regretted the defamatory attacks against Kunze and the Winckelmann Society. On March 8, 2012, the Naumburg Higher Regional Court confirmed the conviction of Stefan Lehmann for the omission of the allegations against Max Kunze and the Winckelmann Society.

The ancient origin of the "Alexander Stendal" is no longer represented even by Kunze's then employee Sascha Kansteiner. To this day, Max Kunze and the Winckelmann Society have not provided the public with the evidence of authenticity for the bronze Alexander, who has been “lost” since the exhibition in Stendal, which was assured in court.

Fonts (selection)

• The historical and ideological foundations of the classicism phenomenon in the relief art of the early Roman Empire. Berlin 1974 (dissertation).
• Max Kunze, Huberta Heres (ed.): The world of the Etruscans. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-05-001013-4 .
• The Altar of Pergamon. Staatliche Museen Berlin, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-88609-263-1 .
• Masterpieces of antique bronzes and metalwork from the Borowski collection. Verlag Franz Philipp Rutzen, Ruhpolding and Mainz 2007, ISBN 978-3-938646-06-9 .
• Max Kunze. With colleagues from Sascha Kansteiner and Moritz Kiderlen, Alexander the Great: King of the World; a newly discovered bronze statue ; Special exhibition, Winckelmann Society with Winckelmann Museum Stendal from July 15, 2000 to September 3, 2000 (Stendal 2000). ISBN 3-910060-34-X .

Web links

• Literature by and about Max Kunze in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The events in Stendal and around Max Kunze and Robin Symes now dealt with in the context of global trade in illegal cultural goods, see Günther Wessel : The dirty business with antiquity. The global trade in illegal cultural goods. Berlin 2015, pp. 130–140.
2. ↑ Stephan Lehmann: Alexander the Great - once in Stendal. Original - copy - forgery? (= Catalogs and writings of the Archaeological Museum of the Martin Luther University. Volume 2). Halle (Saale) 2009, ISBN 9783941171299 . Reviewed by Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, Bryn Mawr College Review 05.57.2010 ([e-mail]); For 'Alexander Stendal' and the workshop of the Spanish master, s. Stephan Lehmann in: Original to ... forgeries between fascination and fraud. Exhibition catalog. Moritzburg Art Museum, Halle (Saale) 2014, pp. 48–59; ders .: 'Alexander Stendal', 'Roman' portraits of women in Basel and a 'Geta' from the Zurich art trade: first indications of the 'Spanish master's' forgery workshop. In: Stephan Lehmann (Hrsg.): Authenticity and originality of antique bronze portraits: A fake Augustus portrait, its requirements and its surroundings. Contributions to the scientific workshop discussion in the Archaeological Museum of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg 2014. Sandstein, Dresden 2015, pp. 80–86.
3. ↑ How real is the Alexander bust? In: Naumburger Tageblatt . Heroes put to the test . In: Der Spiegel . No. 3 , 2008 ( online ). Cheaters in the Temple of the Muses . In: Der Spiegel . No.  19 , 2014 ( online ). M. Schulz: Dizziness at the furnace . In: Der Spiegel . No. 47 , 2011, p. 160-163 ( online ).
4. ↑ Stephan Lehmann: Alexander the Great - once in Stendal: Original - Copy - Forgery? (= Catalogs and publications of the Archaeological Museum of the Martin Luther University. Vol. 2). Hall 2009; see review by Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review , May 26, 2010 ( online ).
5. ↑ Christoph Schmälzle: Who knows the real antiquities? Don't shoot the critic: quarrel in Stendal's Winckelmann Society. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 4, 2010, p. 35. Christoph Schmälzle: Die Alexanderschlacht. The dispute in the Winckelmann Society comes to a head. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. December 7, 2010, p. 31. Patrick Bahners: The king has a heavy spike. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , May 30, 2011, p. 27. M. Schulz: Schwindel am Schmelzofen . In: Der Spiegel . No. 47 , 2011, p. 160-163 ( online ). Patrick Bahners: Bloody hunger for bronzes. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. December 2, 2011, p. 31. From a legal perspective, see: Simon A. Lück, The scientific dispute over the forgery of an Alexander bust and the legal assessment. In: Stefan Lehmann: Authenticity and originality of antique bronze portraits: A fake Augustus portrait, its requirements and its surroundings. Sandstein, Dresden 2015, pp. 162–164, and on the journalistic assessment: Sönje Storm, The scientific suspicion of falsification in the mirror of the media. In: ibid, pp. 168-172.
6. ^ Professors' dispute : Lehmann rows back , Volksstimme.de, February 20, 2012 (accessed December 31, 2017).
7. ↑ OLG Naumburg, judgment of March 8, 2012 - 9 U 139/11 -
8. ↑ Sascha Kansteiner: Review of: Stephan Lehmann (Ed.), Authenticity and Originality of Antique Bronze Portraits: A Fake Augustus Portrait, Its Requirements and Its Environment. In: H-Soz-Kult , April 11, 2016. Kansteiner, who was involved in the exhibition in Stendal, was personally responsible for the Stendal scandal and did not adhere to the standards of scientific publication ethics, because there is thus a conflict of interest between the personally involved reviewer and the editorial team of H-Soz-Kult for the discussed work of the editor / author.
9. ↑ How urgent the problem of counterfeiting is is shown by the reaction of the "Federal Association of Art Experts" by setting up a "Working Group for Art Counterfeiting" which was held on March 24, 2017 on the subject of "ORIGINAL COUNTERFEIT" in the Goethe and Schiller Archives of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar met, p. Christoph Schmälzle: The attributions are wrong, not the objects: The Federal Association of Art Experts is seeking advice. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of May 3, 2017, p. N3.