An art collective has hacked QR codes at a controversial exhibition at Zurich’s Kunsthaus, giving visitors its own unvarnished take on the biography of collector Emil Georg Bührle, whom the collective describes as “a Nazi sympathizer, authoritarian militarist, at the very least a profiteering warrior and probably a war criminal.
An uproar over the Bührle collection has overshadowed the opening of the Kunsthaus’s towering new extension in 2021. The building, designed by British architect David Chipperfield, features 170 Impressionist works on loan from the Bührle Foundation. Bührle, a Swiss industrialist who died in 1956, made his fortune selling weapons to Nazi Germany and bought works of art looted by the Nazi regime.
On its website, the art collective KKKK describes the Bührle collection as “the Swiss version of a Holocaust memorial” and claims that it is the product of “persecution, expropriation and murder”. The collective demanded the immediate return of all works in the collection allegedly stolen directly or indirectly from Jews, and the sale of all remaining works for the benefit of Holocaust survivors, their descendants and the descendants of workers enslaved by the Nazis.
Bührle’s ties to the Kunsthaus date back to 1940, when Bührle became a member of its board of trustees; he also financed an earlier extension, completed in 1958. It is undisputed that Bührle’s company sold anti-aircraft guns to Nazi Germany during World War II and profited from slave labor.
Some critics have argued that the Kunsthaus should never have accepted the loan of his collection given the origins of his wealth. They also criticized the Bührle Foundation’s provenance research, saying it whitewashed the circumstances under which the art was acquired.
The foundation claims that none of the works in the collection on display were lost due to Nazi persecution and therefore eligible for restitution to rightful heirs. But at least one work in the collection is disputed: the foundation has rejected a request for the work of Claude Monet Poppy field near Vétheuil (1879).
A new director, Ann Demeester, took over in January, pledging to confront Bührle’s troubled legacy. The city and canton of Zurich have also set up an independent commission to investigate and evaluate the provenance research of the Bührle Foundation. The current, much criticized Bührle exhibition will be replaced by a new exhibition in November.
The hackers’ action “shows us that the themes that will be addressed in the new exhibition continue to be relevant,” Demeester said in response to an email request. “We look forward to engaging the discussion when it opens. We are working with a multi-voiced team and external expert advice on this exhibit. We have reached out to the KKKK to start a conversation beforehand.
