Retracing the history of ownership or provenance of a work of art has become an essential step in the museum purchasing process, especially in the case of works of art located in Europe during World War II. In accordance with the guidelines adopted by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) in 1998, works that may have transferred ownership after 1932 or before 1946 in Europe must be thoroughly investigated to ensure they were not subject to looting by the Nazis during the Hitler regime.

This time-consuming art historical “detective work” often leads to interesting avenues that allow the history of the work to be reconstructed. Because of the chaos of the wartime period it is especially difficult to retrace the provenance of works such as the Bruyn altarpiece, which remained in Germany throughout the war, since many inventory, sales, or purchase records were misplaced or destroyed. Research on the provenance of the altarpiece therefore took more than half a year to complete.

The numbers and names on the back of the work, which often provide clues, were investigated to make certain they did not correspond to problematic collections or sales. Then in addition to conducting general library and internet research, American, British, Swiss, German, and Dutch archives were contacted, as well as libraries, museums, dealers, and auction houses. Many international and national experts in various related fields were consulted. Private individuals in any way related to, or familiar with, any of the previous owners were also contacted. It was only after these exhaustive inquiries were made that the provenance of the work could be reconstructed.

With regard to the history of the altarpiece’s ownership during World War II, it was concluded that the work was most likely sold in a private sale from the collection of Rudolph Chillingworth in 1924 to Marie Frederieke Joerger- Engelhorn (1866-1953), who bequeathed it to two grandsons, Christof and Peter Engelhorn. The Engelhorn grandsons received the painting in 1954 and in turn sold it to Albert Otten in December of 1955. Otten probably saw the altarpiece in the Barthel Bruyn exhibition held in 1955 at the Lempertz auction house in Cologne. Prior to the exhibition, it was discovered that the small donor figures in the altarpiece had been overpainted at some point in the work’s history. The overpainting was removed in the conservation studios of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum.

Henriette Kets de Vries
Manager, Cunningham Center
for the Study of Prints, Drawings and Photographs



A photograph of the altarpiece prior to the 1955 removal of overpainting obscuring the donor figures