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An attack on 63 exhibits, including three or four loans, in state museums has caused the most extensive damage to houses on Berlin’s Museum Island since World War II. Based on previous knowledge, one or more perpetrators are said to have applied a liquid to the objects on October 3. In addition to the Tagesspiegel, “Die Zeit” and “Deutschlandfunk” also report on the crime.
Total damage could only bear the name of restoration work, said Deputy Director General of the State Museums Christina Haak at the joint press conference with the Berlin police on Wednesday. The New Museum, the Pergamon Museum and the Old National Gallery are affected.
The case was only known on Tuesday night. The State Criminal Police Office asked visitors who had booked a ticket to the museums for October 3 after the Corona close to provide information by email.
Property damage that is detrimental to the community is being investigated. The criminal director responsible for art crimes, Carsten Pfohl, said Wednesday that about 3,000 visitors were in the affected museums on Oct. 3. Personal data could only have been recorded from a fraction, of those guests who booked their tickets online. Most of them would have gotten their tickets from the daily sale.
The fact that the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the police only became public more than two weeks after the attack was based on tactical investigation reasons. Pfohl would not say what liquid was used for the attack for tactical research reasons.
The liquid was oily and non-corrosive.
Therefore, the liquid was colorless, oily, and not caustic. It is also unclear how the liquid was distributed. The liquid left small stains on damaged objects: Egyptian sarcophagi, stone sculptures and paintings from the 19th century. When evaluating the video footage from the surveillance cameras, there was no evidence, Pfohl said. The museum staff interviewed so far had not observed anything. The liquid left visible stains on Egyptian sarcophagi, stone sculptures, and 19th-century paintings. The oil-containing liquid is particularly problematic in sculptures made of sandstone because it is quickly absorbed into the porous material.
Christina Haak said it was still wide open if one or more perpetrators carried out the attack. It is also not possible to know if the perpetrators have focused on a specific issue or specific characters.
The foundation sees the attack as a series of attacks that have occurred in recent months, for example in Kolonnaden Park. There is a sense that the threat is entering museums, he said.
“We have been investigating for a while in all directions due to property damage,” a police spokesman said Wednesday morning. The commissioner responsible for art crimes at the Berlin State Criminal Police Office took over the case.
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The Minister of State for Culture, Monika Grütters (CDU), was informed of the attacks by the president of the Foundation, Hermann Parzinger, on 6 October. The administration of Culture Senator Klaus Lederer (left) said Wednesday that it only learned of the attack from the press.
Grütters asked for clarification on safety precautions on Wednesday. Berlin’s state museums would have to ask questions again about their security precautions, Grütters explained.
Minister of State for Culture Grütters: “I hope the damage caused is repaired”
“I immediately asked the president to present a full report to the Board of Directors. It is necessary to clarify how this amount of damage could go unnoticed and how such attacks can be prevented in the future, ”he said.
The Minister of State for Culture condemned the deliberate damage to works of art in the strongest terms. They were directed “also against artistic forms of expression, against our entire cultural heritage, against civil forms of debate and, therefore, against the principles of our democratic self-image,” Grütters said.
In addition to sheer damage to property, such attacks always show a deep disregard for works of art and cultural achievements as a whole. “There is a justified hope that the damage caused can be repaired.”
The perpetrators must have traversed the halls for at least an hour to reach all the artworks on Museum Island, as calculated by Deutschlandfunk. Similar attacks with oily liquids are said to have occurred in Wewelsburg in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin. At that time there was a “cult background.”
Spectacular theft of coins three and a half years ago
Three and a half years ago, Museum Island was the scene of a spectacular crime. The “Big Maple Leaf” coin with a value of 3.75 million euros was stolen from a display case on the night of March 27, 2017 and transported with a wheelbarrow and a roller table. The thieves entered through a window.
The loot has disappeared to this day and was probably dismembered and sold. State Minister for Culture Monika Grütters (CDU) made clear at a conference of the German Association of Museums in September that it was urgent to thoroughly examine and question the security situation in museums.
[Sicherheit vor der eigenen Haustür: In unseren Leute-Newslettern aus den zwölf Berliner Bezirken geht es auch oft um die Polizei. Die Newsletter können Sie hier kostenlos bestellen: leute.tagesspiegel.de]
In 2019, the Grünes Gewölbe treasure museum in Dresden’s residential palace became a crime scene: On November 25, 2019, two strangers looted historic diamonds and diamonds.
Attila Hildmann performed demonstrations on the museum stairs
Experts now harbor a suspicion that is also known to the police: did supporters of far-right vegan chef Attila Hildmann or other conspiracy ideologues carried out one of the biggest attacks on ancient art in the history of Germany’s? postwar?
In June, conspiracy theorist and anti-Semite Attila Hildmann held regular rallies on the steps of the Altes Museum. In July, the Berlin assembly authorities finally banned their demonstrations due to a formulated “considerable probability” of incitement, threats and insults. At the same time, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which runs the Museum Island, distanced itself from the hate speech of the cookbook author.
The foundation made this clear, among other things, with a large banner on the entrance portal of the Altes Museum, in which the foundation campaigned for cosmopolitanism and against racism, anti-Semitism and nationalism. As a result, the various museums in central Berlin became the focus of Hildmann’s agitation. In the Telegram messaging service he already wrote in August that the Pergamon Museum with the Altar of Baal supposedly would be the “throne of Satan”.
Hildmann repeatedly referred to the exhibit as the “center of global Satanists and Crown criminals”, at night in the museum “people were slaughtered” and “children were desecrated,” the conspiratorial ideologue wrote to his followers.
Hildmann wrote that the Altes Museum boycotted him “in my demonstrations. Now we know why. Filthy Satanists.” Singer Xavier Naidoo also spread the word. It is one of the narratives of the conspiracy-esoteric scene in Germany.
Investigation on sedition
He also established an alleged connection between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s private apartment in Mitte and her proximity to the Pergamon Museum. He referred to the German head of government several times as “Illuminati” and “Demon”. Hildmann is now followed by more than 100,000 people on Telegram. Also on October 3, when the attack on the works of art apparently took place, several conspiracy theorizing demonstrations were held in Berlin-Mitte.
Hildmann is also being investigated in Brandenburg for his statements on his Telegram channel, because he lives there. In early May, the first reports of hate speech reached the Brandenburg police, then state security took over the investigation, while the Hildmann case is in the hands of the prosecutor responsible for Internet crimes at Cottbus. From there he says, “We are still in the middle of the investigation.”
Museum Island is the centerpiece of the Berlin State Museums.
With its five exhibition halls and the James-Simon-Galerie, the Museum Island is the centerpiece of the Berlin State Museums, which belong to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It has been listed as a World Heritage Site since 1999 and is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city. Most of the public went to the Neues Museum last year, with 828,000 visitors.
The Museum Island is also home to the Ancient Museum, the Ancient National Gallery, the Bode Museum and the Pergamon Museum. In 2019, the total number of visitors to the State Museum, with its 15 collections spread across four locations across the city, was 4.2 million.
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is supported by 75 percent from the federal government and 25 percent from the federal states. It is one of the largest cultural institutions in the world. The maintenance costs of the buildings on Museum Island are currently borne by the federal government.
At the beginning of October, the Pergamon Museum celebrated its 90th anniversary. It is named after its most famous attraction, the Pergamon Altar. It dates back to the 2nd century BC and belonged to the residence of the powerful Pergamon kings, who created a cultural metropolis based on the model of Athens in the west of what is now Turkey.
During the day there was uncertainty about the number of damaged objects. In previous versions of the text the number fluctuated between 63 and 68. After several inquiries in the State Museums, it was said on Wednesday night that 63 works were affected. We apologize for the repeated changes.
