Veses |
Collection of Julius Kien
Author:
Bettina Zorn
Bettina Zorn
This example of provenance research on Nazi looted art and the restitution of two Chinese hunping soul vases 魂瓶 from the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) is based on the research by my former colleague Ildikó Cazan-Simányi, who headed the archive of the Weltmuseum Wien (until 2013 Museum of Ethnology) from 1995 to April 2022 and was a member of the Commission for Provenance Research from 1998.
The two soul vases, listed in a later or new entry in the museum inventory in the 1960s as apostle vases, were owned until 1938 by Julius Kien (1868–1949), proprietor of the commercial agency Julius Kien & Co. at the present-day Rooseveltplatz 10 in Vienna’s 9th district. In the ten years from 1930 to 1940 this square had the following name: Maximilianplatz, Freiheitsplatz, Dollfußplatz and Hermann-Göring-Platz.
Julius Kien was born in 1868 as the third child of Josef and Minna Kien in a small town in southern Bohemia. The eight-person family is thought to have moved to Vienna towards the end of the nineteenth century.
His father, the building contractor Josef Kien, is documented to have died here in 1902. The Kien family participated actively in public, cultural and social life in Vienna. Julius Kien and his daughter, the art historian Hedwig Spiegel, were members of the Verein der Freunde asiatischer Kunst und Kultur in Wien (Association of Friends of Art and Culture in Vienna), founded in 1925.
When the National Socialist regime came to power in Austria in March 1938, the situation of the Kien family deteriorated drastically. In July 1938, Julius Kien had to declare his assets to the Property Transaction Office in Vienna for entry in the list of the assets of Jews as at 27 April 1938. Apart from agricultural and forest land and real estate, the declaration also included art objects. Handelsagentur Julius Kien & Co was closed a few months later. Among the works of art were paintings in the style of the Old Masters, modern works by Klimt and Schiele, carpets, a netsuke collection and chinoiserie objects, possibly part of an unspecified ethnographic collection.
By the end of the year, some of the assets declared in the summer had already been sold. With their sensitivity to the political situation, the Kien family managed to prepare their forced emigration in good time. By the end of 1938, the Kien children Hedwig Spiegel and Josef Friedrich (Fritz?) Kien, had left Austria, the latter with his wife and family.
After the sale of all assets to pay the Reich Flight Tax and Jewish Asset Levy, Julius and Adele Kien emigrated to Australia via Switzerland and London at the end of March 1939.
On 10 March 1939, Friedrich Röck, director of the Museum of Ethnology (1928–1945), wrote to the Ministry of Internal and Cultural Affairs that “there are three antique Chinese objects in the ethnographic collection of the émigré Julius Kien, Herman Göringplatz 10,II/T.12, described by the expert art dealer Anton Exner as rare museum pieces that have been barred from export. Moreover, the Central Monument Protection Office has informed the undersigned that these three objects (‘2 burial urns from the Song era and 1 hanging plant pot from the Ming era, China’) would be given to the Museum of Ethnology by the former owner free of charge.”
The following day, the director of the Museum of Ethnology sent a letter to Julius Kien confirming the donation of the three objects, “a pair of white Song burial urns, China, and a hanging plant pot from the Ming era, China”.
Interestingly, in his letter of 10 March 1939 to the Ministry, Röck asked explicitly “whether the confidential decree by the Reich Minister of the Interior Z: VI c 3193/38, 7005 Allg., III, stating that gifts from Jews could not be accepted is still valid or not.”
In his eagerness to comply or because he had drawn the attention of the Ministry of Internal and Cultural Affairs to a “mistake”, Röck wrote to the head of the Property Transaction Office on 18 March 1939 asking it to “request the Ministry of Internal and Cultural Affairs to have the Property Transaction Office formally approve the purchase of the three rare Chinese antiques owned by Julius Kien, Vienna 1, Hermann Göringplatz 10” for 700 reichsmarks. In order to comply with the decree from the Reich Minister banning the acceptance of gifts from Jews, the Museum of Ethnology thus acquired the objects for 700 reichsmarks.
Röck’s letter of 10 March 1939 was one of the reasons that the Art Restitution Advisory Board on 14 March 2001 recommended the return of the three objects in the Museum of Ethnology from Julius Kien’s collection. Section head Rudolf Wran commented: “The director of the Museum of Ethnology at the time first barred the Chinese art objects from export, after which they were purchased by the museum – a purchase under pressure due to the situation and therefore an invalid transaction”.
Julius Kien’s file in the museum notes that (apparently) the objects were “declared as Jewish assets in autumn 1946”, but nothing happened.
It should also be mentioned that the two children, Hedwig Spiegel and Friedrich Kien, made a claim in 1970 following the promulgation on 27 June 1969 of the Federal Law on the Clarification of the Ownership of Works of Art and Cultural Objects Stored by the Federal Monuments Authority (BGBI. No. 294). It was sent to the Provincial Tax Office for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland (Securing Property and Restitution Matters) but was rejected. Hedwig Spiegel died in 1985 and Friedrich Kien in 1998.
Pursuant to the Art Restitution Act of 4 December 1998 (BGBI. I 181), the file was investigated, a dossier drawn up, a recommendation for restitution made, and the legal heirs sought. Julius Kien’s granddaughter was found in Tel Aviv and contacted. The three collection objects were restituted to her and other descendants. The museum arranged with them to purchase the items, and the proceeds were donated to the international Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
A few words in conclusion about the objects in question, a pair of twelfth- or thirteenth-century soul vases from southern China. These objects were used as burial urns and filled with food for the dead. The (missing) lids were each decorated with a flying bird. The tall and narrow urns have Qingbai glazing. One vase shows a dragon representing the east, and the second has a tiger representing the west. Underneath are thirteen moulded figures – which might have been the reason for the misleading designation as “apostle vases”.
In view of their significance as examples of early Chinese art collections in Austria, the two vases and plant pot belonging to the collector Julius Kien are worthy of further research.
Bettina Zorn, curator of the East Asia Collection: China, Korea, Japan
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The two soul vases, listed in a later or new entry in the museum inventory in the 1960s as apostle vases, were owned until 1938 by Julius Kien (1868–1949), proprietor of the commercial agency Julius Kien & Co. at the present-day Rooseveltplatz 10 in Vienna’s 9th district. In the ten years from 1930 to 1940 this square had the following name: Maximilianplatz, Freiheitsplatz, Dollfußplatz and Hermann-Göring-Platz.
Julius Kien was born in 1868 as the third child of Josef and Minna Kien in a small town in southern Bohemia. The eight-person family is thought to have moved to Vienna towards the end of the nineteenth century.
His father, the building contractor Josef Kien, is documented to have died here in 1902. The Kien family participated actively in public, cultural and social life in Vienna. Julius Kien and his daughter, the art historian Hedwig Spiegel, were members of the Verein der Freunde asiatischer Kunst und Kultur in Wien (Association of Friends of Art and Culture in Vienna), founded in 1925.
When the National Socialist regime came to power in Austria in March 1938, the situation of the Kien family deteriorated drastically. In July 1938, Julius Kien had to declare his assets to the Property Transaction Office in Vienna for entry in the list of the assets of Jews as at 27 April 1938. Apart from agricultural and forest land and real estate, the declaration also included art objects. Handelsagentur Julius Kien & Co was closed a few months later. Among the works of art were paintings in the style of the Old Masters, modern works by Klimt and Schiele, carpets, a netsuke collection and chinoiserie objects, possibly part of an unspecified ethnographic collection.
By the end of the year, some of the assets declared in the summer had already been sold. With their sensitivity to the political situation, the Kien family managed to prepare their forced emigration in good time. By the end of 1938, the Kien children Hedwig Spiegel and Josef Friedrich (Fritz?) Kien, had left Austria, the latter with his wife and family.
After the sale of all assets to pay the Reich Flight Tax and Jewish Asset Levy, Julius and Adele Kien emigrated to Australia via Switzerland and London at the end of March 1939.
On 10 March 1939, Friedrich Röck, director of the Museum of Ethnology (1928–1945), wrote to the Ministry of Internal and Cultural Affairs that “there are three antique Chinese objects in the ethnographic collection of the émigré Julius Kien, Herman Göringplatz 10,II/T.12, described by the expert art dealer Anton Exner as rare museum pieces that have been barred from export. Moreover, the Central Monument Protection Office has informed the undersigned that these three objects (‘2 burial urns from the Song era and 1 hanging plant pot from the Ming era, China’) would be given to the Museum of Ethnology by the former owner free of charge.”
The following day, the director of the Museum of Ethnology sent a letter to Julius Kien confirming the donation of the three objects, “a pair of white Song burial urns, China, and a hanging plant pot from the Ming era, China”.
Interestingly, in his letter of 10 March 1939 to the Ministry, Röck asked explicitly “whether the confidential decree by the Reich Minister of the Interior Z: VI c 3193/38, 7005 Allg., III, stating that gifts from Jews could not be accepted is still valid or not.”
In his eagerness to comply or because he had drawn the attention of the Ministry of Internal and Cultural Affairs to a “mistake”, Röck wrote to the head of the Property Transaction Office on 18 March 1939 asking it to “request the Ministry of Internal and Cultural Affairs to have the Property Transaction Office formally approve the purchase of the three rare Chinese antiques owned by Julius Kien, Vienna 1, Hermann Göringplatz 10” for 700 reichsmarks. In order to comply with the decree from the Reich Minister banning the acceptance of gifts from Jews, the Museum of Ethnology thus acquired the objects for 700 reichsmarks.
Röck’s letter of 10 March 1939 was one of the reasons that the Art Restitution Advisory Board on 14 March 2001 recommended the return of the three objects in the Museum of Ethnology from Julius Kien’s collection. Section head Rudolf Wran commented: “The director of the Museum of Ethnology at the time first barred the Chinese art objects from export, after which they were purchased by the museum – a purchase under pressure due to the situation and therefore an invalid transaction”.
Julius Kien’s file in the museum notes that (apparently) the objects were “declared as Jewish assets in autumn 1946”, but nothing happened.
It should also be mentioned that the two children, Hedwig Spiegel and Friedrich Kien, made a claim in 1970 following the promulgation on 27 June 1969 of the Federal Law on the Clarification of the Ownership of Works of Art and Cultural Objects Stored by the Federal Monuments Authority (BGBI. No. 294). It was sent to the Provincial Tax Office for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland (Securing Property and Restitution Matters) but was rejected. Hedwig Spiegel died in 1985 and Friedrich Kien in 1998.
Pursuant to the Art Restitution Act of 4 December 1998 (BGBI. I 181), the file was investigated, a dossier drawn up, a recommendation for restitution made, and the legal heirs sought. Julius Kien’s granddaughter was found in Tel Aviv and contacted. The three collection objects were restituted to her and other descendants. The museum arranged with them to purchase the items, and the proceeds were donated to the international Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
A few words in conclusion about the objects in question, a pair of twelfth- or thirteenth-century soul vases from southern China. These objects were used as burial urns and filled with food for the dead. The (missing) lids were each decorated with a flying bird. The tall and narrow urns have Qingbai glazing. One vase shows a dragon representing the east, and the second has a tiger representing the west. Underneath are thirteen moulded figures – which might have been the reason for the misleading designation as “apostle vases”.
In view of their significance as examples of early Chinese art collections in Austria, the two vases and plant pot belonging to the collector Julius Kien are worthy of further research.
Bettina Zorn, curator of the East Asia Collection: China, Korea, Japan
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