Superb Meissen porcelain from the Oppenheimer family collection goes on display in the Rijksmuseum’s Gallery of Honour

Meissen porcelain

The arrival of Meissen porcelain in 1709 is one of the most important moments in the history of European decorative arts. This first ever porcelain to be manufactured in Europe was produced at the Dresden Royal Court under the patronage of Augustus II the Strong, the Elector of Saxony. Until this point, the secret method for making this ‘white gold’ was known only in Asia. Margarethe and Franz Oppenheimer’s collection almost exclusively comprised objects with the very finest decoration and gilding. It partly accounts for the world renown of the Rijksmuseum’s Meissen collection, which is regarded as the most important of its kind alongside the Dresden Porcelain Collection. Nowhere else in the Netherlands is European porcelain of such high quality to be found.

Provenance of the Oppenheimer collection

Margarethe and Franz Oppenheimer started in 1902 to assemble their exceptionally important collection of early Meissen porcelain at their home in Berlin. Subject as they were to the pressures of persecution by the Nazi regime, in 1936 they decided to flee to Austria, taking with them most of their porcelain collection. In 1938 – shortly before the Nazi annexation, or Anschluss, of Austria – they fled again, this time ultimately settling in the United States in 1941. Just before this second flight, the couple sold a large portion of their Meissen collection to Fritz Mannheimer. Mannheimer was an Amsterdam-based Jewish-German banker who collected European decorative art from the major European royal collections of the 16th to 18th centuries. Following Mannheimer’s death in 1939, his estate was declared bankrupt, whereupon its liquidator was pressured to sell the collection to the Nazis to pay off its creditors. After the war, the collection was recovered and subsequently came under the management of the Dutch state. The majority of the collection formed part of the Rijksmuseum’s decorative arts collection from 1952 onwards.

Restitution

In 2016, Margarethe and Franz Oppenheimer’s heirs submitted a claim to the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) for objects including 92 held by the Rijksmuseum. Following a thorough investigation, the Restitutions Committee concluded that the sale to Mannheimer had been forced, and that the Oppenheimers would never have sold their collection had they not been subject to the enormous pressure of Nazi persecution. The Restitutions Committee proceeded to recommend to the Minister responsible that the objects be restituted to the heirs. The Minister approved the restitution in December 2019.

The Rijksmuseum has since 2012 also been carrying out its own investigations into the provenance of its collection in the context of the Second World War. It identified the Oppenheimer collection as being of unclear provenance on the website Museum Acquisitions from 1933 Onwards (musealeverwervingen.nl).

Vital support

The Rijksmuseum is grateful for all forms of support. It is clear that government subsidies, corporate contributions and support from funds, as well as donations, legacies and Friends are, and will remain, essential to the Rijksmuseum.