Berlin Museum Island – Photographs show damaged artworks and exhibits

Stand: 3:59 pm | Reading time: 3 minutes

Ao Dozens of works of art have apparently been intentionally damaged on Berlin’s Museum Island. The Berlin police and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation confirmed the corresponding media reports at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. The damage occurred on October 3. There are almost 70 objects in the Pergamon Museum, the New Museum and the Old National Gallery. They were doused with an oily liquid.

It is the most extensive case of vandalism in the history of the Berlin State Museums. “It is a painful experience that we did not expect,” said Friederike Seyfried, director of the Egyptian Museum. The perpetrator or perpetrators walked relatively aimlessly past the houses. None of the particularly famous exhibits are affected, the damage cannot yet be quantified. Christina Haak, deputy director general of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, emphasized that the composition of the liquid could have been determined quickly, which helps restorers.

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation found the first damage on the night of October 3, he said. The houses then got an overview of the damage and reported it to the police on October 5. In consultation with the authorities, for reasons of tactical investigations and also in order to first inform the lenders of the exhibits, it was agreed not to disclose.

Meanwhile, the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) had written to all visitors who had booked museum tickets online for October 3 and urgently asked for their help. In addition, the authorities have requested witnesses from all visitors to Museum Island that day.

“To this day, we cannot limit when the property damage occurred, we assume it occurred on October 3, during the opening hours of 10 am to 6 pm,” said Carsten Pfohl, head of the Criminal Police Office. of the State of Berlin (LKA) at the press conference. . Hours of evaluating video footage from surveillance cameras would have resulted in nothing. However, the liquid, about which no further information was given for tactical reasons, was colorless, so “it would not necessarily be noticeable if someone threw a clear liquid with a squirt gun.” Possible tools of action could be a squirt gun, concealed spray bottle, or clown flower.

What does Attila Hildmann have against the Pargamon Museum?

Police did not want to speculate whether chef and vegan activist Attila Hildmann could have incited the unknown perpetrator to attack the exhibits. “We don’t want to participate in such speculation,” Pfohl said. The damaged objects have no context in terms of content, the reason is completely confusing. Researchers had previously said that art abusers could be “crazy” or mentally ill. In addition, the researchers referred to similar events in other museums internationally.

According to “Zeit” and Deutschlandfunk, the conspiratorial ideologue Hildmann had spread on his public Telegram channel in August and September that the Pergamon Museum, which was still closed due to the crown pandemic, was the “Throne of Satan” and that it was at the center of the “crown criminal and global Satanist scene.” Also on Wednesday, after the attack became known, Hildmann shared a series of articles on the subject.

The Museum Island has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1999. 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.

As one of the few museums in Germany, the Pergamon attracts more than a million people each year, when fully open. The group of Altes Museum, Bode-Museum, Alter Nationalgalerie, Neue Museum with the famous bust of the Egyptian Pharaoh of Nefertiti and James-Simon-Galerie as the most recent building attracted almost 3.1 million people.