Vision and display

Biography of an object

Provenance research adds to the ‘biography’ of the object being investigated. A biography tells object’s life story. It provides an account of the object’s location before it came to the museum, its owner, and its original purpose. And the life stories of the previous owners of these objects – people who were persecuted and murdered during the Second World War – are part of the history of the Netherlands.

Increased visibility

Interest has grown in recent years in the personal stories that inhabit the galleries of the Rijksmuseum. One such story is intertwined with the salt cellars once owned by the German collector Emma Budge (1852-1937) [link]. Visitors viewing the salt cellars today may notice an accompanying label with additional information. As well as a description of these rare and beautiful objects, they can read about Emma Budge, whose art collection was auctioned off by the Nazis after she died. Her heirs received none of the proceeds of this sale.

In the Gallery of Honour

In 2022 the Rijksmuseum placed Meissen porcelain objects from the Oppenheimer collection on display in the Gallery Of Honour, having purchased them at auction a year earlier. In 2019, the entire Oppenheimer collection, which by then was spread over several museums, was restituted to the heirs of its original collectors Margarethe Oppenheimer (1878-1949) and Franz Oppenheimer (1871-1950). Forced to flee the Nazis, they had no other option but to sell their impressive collection of Meissen porcelain. The display in the Rijksmuseum, which we presented in consultation with the heirs, focused on the family’s history as well as their celebrated collection.

Looted, a collaborative project

In 2019 the Rijksmuseum formed a partnership with Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quarter for Looted, a project comprising an exhibition, a background publication and a symposium about the involuntary loss of Jewish cultural property. The exhibition curated by curators Julie Marthe Cohen (JCK) and Mara Lagerweij (RMA) explored the emotional impact of Nazi looting practices both on the people who experienced it directly and on subsequent generations.

There was also room for the coldhearted way in which the Dutch government responded to requests for restitution soon after the war. Looting was one of the steps in the process of dehumanisation, which comprised isolation, displacement, looting and murder. Looted, the exhibition, ran from 31 May 2024 to 27 October 2024 at the National Holocaust Museum and the Jewish Museum, both in Amsterdam.

Online

The Rijksmuseum is also sharing provenance-related stories on social media. One tells of Marjorie Bottenheim (1896-1983), who performed ground-breaking work as an academic and librarian working at the Rijksmuseum. In 1939 she oversaw the evacuation of art works to safe storage depots, but during the war the Nazi occupiers pressured the Rijksmuseum into firing her. She went into hiding and survived the war. When peace came she was re-employed by the Rijksmuseum Print Room, where she continued to work until retiring in 1965.

The Amsterdam pharmacist Emanuel Vita Israël (1873-1940) owned many artefacts including the collection of keys on display in the Special Collections, the section on the ground floor of the Rijksmuseum displaying unusual items. Vita Israël donated his entire collection to the Royal Dutch Archaeological Society (KO) in 1937. In May 1940, just days after the Germans invaded the Netherlands, he took his own life. Very few members of his family survived the war.