Gurlitt Sale of Édouard Manet, Marine, Temps d’orage

Kunstmuseum Bern has announced the agreed sale of Édouard Manet’s Marine, Temps d’orage (Ships at sea in stormy weather), 1873 from the Gurlitt estate to The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, (NMWA) where it has recently been on loan as part of the exhibition ‘The Matsukata Collection’ celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Museum’s foundation. The painting, which was part of the Gurlitt estate bequeathed to the Kunstmuseum Bern by Cornelius Gurlitt on his death in 2014, will now be reunited permanently with The Matsukata Collection, which is the basis of the Japanese Museum’s collection and from which it has been separated since its sale during WWII. The agreed sum of 4 million US Dollars will cover the expected deficit resulting from accepting the estate followed by legal disputes, provenance research in cooperation with the DZK (Deutsches Zentrum für Kulturgutverluste), extensive restoration work, processing of claims and organising two subsequent exhibitions exploring its legacy ‘Gurlitt Status Report: Degenerate Art – Confiscated and Sold’ and ‘Gurlitt Status Report: Nazi Art Theft and its Consequences’ in 2017-18.

History of the work

Marine, Temps d’orage (Ships at sea in stormy weather), 1873 was part of the Gurlitt art trove comprising around 1,500 works found in the homes of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of Nazi-era art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt in 2012. The work was previously owned by Japanese industrialist Kôjirô Matsukata, who built up a large collection of artworks whilst living in Europe in the first half of the 20th Century, including several masterpieces of French Impressionism earmarked for a new museum back in his native Japan. Financial issues and political events led to the abandonment of the project and Matsukata’s permanent return to Japan, at which point a group of around 400 artworks were left in Paris under the care of Léonce Bénédite, director of the Musée du Luxembourg.

After the Nazi invasion of Paris in 1940, Matsukata’s sculptures collection was deposited at the Musée Rodin, whilst the paintings, including Marine, Temps d’orage (Ships at sea in stormy weather), were sent to the town of Abondant near Paris where Kôsaburô Hioki, a retired Japanese navy officer who served as Matsukata’s representative in France, was charged with their safekeeping. Unable to cover the costs of maintaining the collection, Hioki sold twenty paintings including this work by Manet sometime between 1940 and 1942 in order to raise funds to safeguard the rest. Marine, Temps d’orage (Ships at sea in stormy weather) passed into the ownership of Hildebrand Gurlitt. The remaining works were seized by the French authorities as alien property following the liberation of France before eventually being returned to Japan in 1959, what led to the opening of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.

Provenance research and sale to Japan

In 2014, the Kunstmuseum Bern inherited the painting Marine, Temps d’orage (Ships at sea in stormy weather), 1873 by Edouard Manet as part of the Gurlitt estate. The provenance of the work has been investigated by The Gurlitt Provenance Research Project, which aimed to clarify the historic ownership status of artworks in the trove in order to establish whether any of them were Nazi-confiscated property or the loss was due to persecution (“verfolgungsbedingter Verlust”) and, if so, who was the last legal owner. The provenance of Manet‘s painting can be clearly established through records of sale and the work has been classified as ‘green’ using the provenance research team’s ‘traffic light’ categorisation system meaning the work is ‘proven or highly likely not to be Nazi-looted art’.

The museum has always made clear that it does not want to derive any financial benefit from the inheritance, however the Board of the museum has reserved the right to eventually sell works with clear provenance to cover any financial deficit incurred through the handling of the estate. Due to significant legal costs, substantial expenses caused by provenance research, comprehensive restoration work and processing of claims as well as the execution of two exhibitions at Kunstmuseum Bern, that deficit is expected to be approximately 4 million Swiss Francs, the same amount as the estimated value placed on the Manet work by independent experts.

Following positive discussions with The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, the Board of Kunstmuseum Bern has taken the decision to sell the painting. The agreed sale has been made possible by the acquisition fund of the Independent Administrative Institution of the National Museum of Art to which the National Museum of Western Art belongs, and the Kunstmuseum Bern has pledged to devote any possible surplus from the sale to support further provenance research into the estate.

«The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, is thrilled to announce the purchase of Édouard Manet's ‹Marine, Temps d’orage› (Ships at sea in stormy weather), 1873, a masterpiece once owned by Kôjirô Matsukata, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its opening in 1959. Kôjirô Matsukata acquired more than 3,000 Western artworks over the course of almost ten years from 1916, including the 375 works that initially remained in France but ultimately returned to Japan to become the core of the NMWA collection. The remaining works, with the exception of approximately 950 lost in a London warehouse fire, have been the focus of a great effort to reunite the collection that has seen approximately 270 works being acquired by the NMWA since its opening. The addition of this Manet work to those ranks is a truly joyous moment for all of us connected to the NMWA, and indeed, to all Japanese art lovers. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Kunstmuseum Bern staff and Board who approved this purchase, and state that the NMWA will carefully preserve and permanently display this Manet work, now returned from its long and arduous journey.»
Akiko Mabuchi, Director, National Museum of Western Art

«The Kunstmuseum Bern has accepted the inheritance of Cornelius Gurlitt’s collection out of a sense of responsibility in order to clarify the provenance of the paintings and to restitute any looted art. The Board of the museum has always made clear that it does not want to profit financially from the inheritance, however the museum cannot bear any substantial deficit from the Gurlitt project. The sale is necessary to raise funds to cover the accumulated costs incurred by Kunstmuseum Bern during the last 5 years.»
Marcel Brülhart, Board member Kunstmuseum Bern /Zentrum Paul Klee in charge of the Gurlitt project

«The museum is delighted that Manet’s ‹Marine, Temps d’orage› (Ships at sea in stormy weather) will be reunited with The Matsukata Collection. In accepting the Gurlitt bequest and organising the subsequent parallel exhibitions ‘Gurlitt: Status Report’ in Bern, in addition to the Gurlitt Provenance Research Project, we have made important progress in understanding the complex history of Nazi-looted art and the fate of Jewish artists, collectors and art dealers who fell victim to the Nazi regime. The permanent return of the work to what could be described as its spiritual home in Japan seems to us an ideal solution that benefits both institutions.»
Nina Zimmer, Director Kunstmuseum Bern – Zentrum Paul Klee

Provenance details:

Image credit:
Édouard Manet Marine, Temps d’orage (Ships at sea in stormy weather), 1873
Oil on canvas, 55 x 72.5 cm
Rouart and Wildenstein no. 200

Provenance:
1883: Estate of the artist, no. 71
Sale: Vente Manet, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 4–5 February 1884, no. 80
Acquired at the above sale: Léon Leenhoff, Paris
Charles Deudon (all of the above per Rouart and Wildenstein)
1914: acquired by Paul Rosenberg
1922: acquired from Rosenberg by Kôjirô Matsukata, Kobe
ca. 1940-1942: sold by Matsukata‘s custodian, Kôsaburô Hioki, Abondant/Paris, possibly to André Schoeller, Paris
25 September 1942: acquired from Schoeller by Raphaël Gérard, Paris, stock no. 21174
5 October 1942: acquired from Gérard by Mathilde Gessler
17 February 1944; bought back from Gessler by Gérard
25 March 1944: acquired from Gérard by Hildebrand Gurlitt, Dresden and later Düsseldorf, stock no. 22456
By 28 April 1944: with Raphaël Gérard, Paris (per Cornelius Gurlitt Papers)
By September 1953: Hildebrand Gurlitt, Dusseldorf (per Cornelius Gurlitt Papers)
By descent to Cornelius Gurlitt, Munich/Salzburg
From 6 May 2014: Estate of Cornelius Gurlitt to the Kunstmuseum Bern

Contact
Maria-Teresa Cano
Head of Communication and Public Relations Kunstmuseum Bern – Zentrum Paul Klee , Tel.: +41 31 328 09 44

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