SKD's wartime loss turns up in Los Angeles

A work lost during the war by the Dresden State Art Collections (SKD) has resurfaced in Los Angeles—Otto Greiner’s “Standing Male Nude” from 1892. Before the work is returned to the SKD in December, the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles is now making its history the subject of an exhibition, the collections in Dresden announced. Under the title “Lost. Found. Returned.,” the creation, loss, and rediscovery of the drawing will be documented. The exhibition addresses issues related to provenance research, collection losses, and international cooperation.

Private individual provided clue to whereabouts

Greiner’s ink drawing is listed in the Lost Art database under number 142843. A tip from a private individual had led two researchers from the Dresden Museum Association to the trail of the missing work. “They were not only able to unequivocally attribute it to the Kupferstich-Kabinett, but also to reconstruct the drawing’s journey from Dresden to Los Angeles,” the statement said.

Drawing was lost in the turmoil of World War II

Otto Greiner (1869–1916) was from Leipzig and was considered an important representative of Symbolism. The story of the lost drawing begins in 1892 in Rome, where Greiner was staying for an extended period at the time. Two years after its creation, it was purchased for the Kupferstich-Kabinett. After the drawing was lost in the turmoil of World War II, it briefly appeared on the German art market in 2001 before being acquired by a Los Angeles collector in New York in 2005. In 2016, it came to the Getty Research Institute as part of that collection, it was reported.

According to the SKD, the exhibition in Los Angeles features photographs and other archival materials, markings, and stamps that trace the drawing’s journey. “A video explains the tools available today for locating lost works of art. Interviews with the two researchers about their work are available at an audio station,” the SKD further stated.