Staatsschauspiel Dresden replaces picture due to Nazi past

The Staatsschauspiel Dresden is replacing a picture in its ancestral gallery because of the Nazi past of the painter Wolfgang Willrich (1897-1948). He was a fanatical representative of National Socialist art policy and played a key role in the "Degenerate Art" exhibition in Munich in 1937, the Staatsschauspiel announced on Thursday. A curator had drawn attention to Willrich's biography at the beginning of the year. Willrich had painted a portrait of the actress Antonia Dietrich for the Dresden Schauspielhaus in 1928 - one year after his state examination at the local art academy. This painting is now to be replaced by a reproduction of a portrait of Dietrich by the Jewish painter Irena Rüther-Rabinowicz. Willrich's work will go into storage.