ELEVEN SCULPTURES branded “degenerate” and confiscated by the Nazis were unveiled in Berlin yesterday, seven decades after they were presumed lost in the second World War.
The sculptures, by artists such as Edwin Scharff and Karl Knappe, were unearthed in front of Berlin town hall during excavation work for an underground train line. After undergoing extensive cleaning, the works will go on display in Berlin’s Neues Museum this morning.
“Archaeology, as you can see, is always good for a surprise or two,” said Dr Hermann Parzinger, president of the Prussian Culture Foundation, which manages Berlin’s cultural institutions.
The rediscovered sculptures were among the 20,000 artworks dubbed “degenerate” and “un-German” seized by the Nazis and, from 1937 on, put in a travelling roadshow. At the show, dubbed “Degenerate Art”, visitors were encouraged to laugh at the largely expressionist and modernist artworks.
Far more works were confiscated than could be displayed in the show and, though the Nazis condemned them in public, they had no problem selling them on to foreign collectors in private.
Last January, a digger turned up an unusual metal object while clearing the site for the train line. Museum experts identified the work as a bust of actress Anni Mewes by Edwin Scharff.
It was thought to be a one-off find until further works began emerging from the long-buried wartime ash and rubble: Standing Girl by Otto Baum; Dancer by Marg Moll; and Hagar by Karl Knappe.
“The discovery of this art, defamed as degenerate by the Nazis, points to the darkest period of German history, in which Berlin has a particular responsibility,” said the city’s mayor, Klaus Wowereit.