Reflecting on Legacy
A roundtable with the descendants (in English)

Roundtable discussion (EN) with Rafael Cardoso (art historian and descendant of Hugo Simon), Rebecca Friedman (Holocaust Claims Processing Office, New York State Department) and Jason Osborn (film maker and descendant of Max Osborn), moderated by Meike Hoffmann (provenance researcher, Freie Universität, Berlin). Welcome by Lisa Marei Schmidt (Director, Brücke-Museum).

The exhibition Biographies of Modern Art. Collectors and their Works honors eight Jewish Brücke collectors for their commitment to modern art and recalls the injustice done to them by the National Socialists. Starting point for the presentation is the museum’s provenance research, which investigates the origin stories of artworks.

During the preparations for the exhibition, it was important to the Brücke-Museum to include the perspectives of the descendants and heirs, which can be experienced now in a film room. A roundtable discussion on the last day of the exhibition will once again focus on the perspectives of the heirs and descendants of the featured collectors. Rafael Cardoso, Rebecca Friedman and Jason Osborn –  three important protagonists in the context of the exhibition and the associated provenance research –   share their impressions and personal experiences of the exhibition project at Brücke-Museum. Together, we will take a look at the collaboration during the preparations for the exhibition and into the future. The discussion will be moderated by provenance researcher Meike Hoffmann, Freie Universität Berlin.

Rafael Cardoso is an art historian and writer. He is a member of the postgraduate faculty in art history (PPGHA) at Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and a research associate at the Lateinamerika-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin. He is the author of numerous books, essays and articles on the history of art and design in Brazil in the 19th and 20th centuries, including Modernity in Black and White: Art and Image, Race and Identity in Brazil, 1890-1945 (Cambridge University Press, 2021). He has also authored four works of fiction, including the historical novel O Remanescente (Companhia das Letras, 2016), translated into German as Das Vermächtnis der Seidenraupen (S. Fischer, 2016). He is a member of PEN-Berlin, AICA-Deutschland, Deutscher Verband für Kunstgeschichte and chairs the board of the Hugo Simon Stiftung. He currently holds the 2024 Aby-Warburg-Gastprofessur at Warburg Haus in Hamburg.

Rebecca Friedman is Senior Art Claims Specialist at the Holocaust Claims Processing Office (HCPO) of the New York State Department of Financial Services, where she has worked on art restitution claims since 2004.  She received a BA in Art History from Columbia, an MA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London and later graduated with a JD from Brooklyn Law School.  Prior to joining the HCPO in 2004, Ms. Friedman worked in the art world for several years.

Jason Osborn is a filmmaker. He has worked with well-known artists such as Dagmar Krause and David Bowie and has been musical director on productions such as The Threepenny Opera and The Seven Deadly Sins. As a composer, he has written music for film and theater, including Couples and Robbers and the BBC production Absolute Hell. He has worked with renowned actors such as Dame Judi Dench and Bill Nighy and has composed for numerous TV documentaries. Since 2009, he has been increasingly dedicated to promoting Georgian cinema, including through the London Georgian Film Festival.

Dr. Meike Hoffmann is a provenance researcher and lecturer in the field of Expressionism, Nazi art politics, and memory culture at Free Universität Berlin. She is the head of the following provenance research projects: Research Center “Entartete Kunst,“ Mosse Art Research Initiative (MARI) and Abraham Adelsberger Art Research Project (AAARP).

Public activities and events are free with museum admission. No advance registration is required.