Berlin’s museum island: desecration of culture

The attack on art took place on the day of German unity, October 3. The capital’s museums were open as usual on public holidays; the authors were probably indistinguishable from other visitors. Objects in three houses on Spree Island, including sarcophagi that are thousands of years old, were doused with an oily liquid. It was colorless but left traces.

Very different objects and therefore also very different materials in the Neues Museum and the Pergamonmuseum are affected, including the picture frames in the Alte Nationalgalerie. At least the paintings themselves, which are particularly sensitive, were saved.

The incident was only made public through media reports. The museums themselves and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK), which is superior to them, had kept a low profile and only today, on short notice, did they schedule a press conference. There the previous silence was justified by tactical investigation considerations, and not all cases were discovered immediately. However, the lenders were informed from the beginning.

The director takes the damage personally

Wednesday afternoon, press conference. Friederike Seyfried, director of the Egyptian Museum, leads journalists to sarcophagi in the Neues Museum and shows examples of the damage, which a museum visitor would hardly notice, but which shock any expert and which now must be treated with some effort. Only in one of the stone coffins in the museum’s so-called Egyptian courtyard can the stain be seen more clearly. The oily liquid was applied, maybe even sprayed. It should be noted that director Seyfried takes the damage to the art that she maintains and manages here personally. There is nothing harmless about it. “He’s really getting down to business here.”

There still seems to be no trace of the perpetrator or perpetrators, and people have to register almost everywhere in Corona’s time. More than 3,000 visitors were on the Museum Island on October 3, according to researchers, more than 2,000 tickets were “unfortunately” handed out in daily sales. 1,400 tickets were reserved via 644 email addresses. These people were asked in writing if they had noticed anything unusual during their visit.

Squirt gun, water bottle, or clown flower?

Apparently, the museum surveillance cameras did not provide any information. The liquid could have been inconspicuously sprayed, according to police, a squirt gun, spray bottle or even a stuffed clown flower served with a tassel is conceivable.

It’s not just about property damage. After nightly raids and robberies at the Bode Museum in Berlin in 2017 and at the Dresden Green Vault in 2019, this act of vandalism is another example of how even the most valuable cultural property is not safe in this country. Already in the summer there were cases of vandalism in the outdoor area of ​​Museum Island, including graffiti and cut banners.

One may have to deal with a new threat to culture, says Eckart Köhne, who runs the Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe and is president of the German Association of Museums. This challenge cannot be overcome by museums alone, as the protection of the state, including the police, is necessary. This protection is at least possible if football matches are held on weekends and police officers are stationed in front of stadiums.

It is not uncommon for works of art to be damaged; some simply write on them with a pen. In Berlin, too, it wasn’t about theft and quick money, but “apparently marking cultural treasures ugly.”

A new anti-culture spirit

Regardless of the possible motives of the perpetrator or perpetrator in Berlin, a new anti-cultural spirit is evident in the country. Why, asks Köhne, could a conspiracy theorist like chef Attila Hildmann claim on social channels that one of the houses on Museum Island houses a “throne of Satan” and is the center of Satanists and “criminals?” of the crown “?

Meanwhile, Hildmann responded to rumors via the Telegram news service that his remarks may have instigated the perpetrators: “Dogs are barking! … We will expose his Satanist scene of child abuse to the last man.”

He also published a map, in which the Pergamon Museum and the Chancellor’s residence were highlighted, he wrote: “The Pergamon Museum houses the throne of Satan (Baal)! At 50 meters in Kupfergraben 6 lives B’nai-B ‘ rith-Illuminati Merkel! Coincidence?

There is no absolute security

So the situation is explosive. How much protection is needed, how much is possible? Alke Dohrmann is a security expert at the Conference of National Cultural Institutions, an interest group of more than 20 major cultural institutions. It points out that there is no absolute security. Museums must be “open” to visitors. “These objects belong to everyone and everyone should be able to see them.”