Appeal against collector’s bequest to Unicef withdrawn

Germany’s Arp Museum to show some of Gustav Rau’s works

By Christine Hoffmann | Web only
Published online 27 Nov 08

FRANKFURT. The dispute over the art collection of the late medical practitioner Gustav Rau has finally come to an end. In mid-October a descendant of Dr Rau and a number of foundations set up by him withdrew their appeal against the decision of the higher regional court in Karlsruhe, which had ruled in August that the beneficiary of Dr Rau’s final will, the international children’s charity Unicef, was the rightful owner of the art collection, worth an estimated €600m.

At the end of October it was announced that parts of the collection would go on show in March at the Arp Museum in Remagen and a contract was signed. According to Dr Rau’s last will, Unicef sought a European museum to exhibit the core collection of 153 art works before it is sold in 2026 to raise funds for their charitable work.

Joachim Hoffmann-Göttig, the cultural secretary of the federal state of Rheinland-Pfalz, spoke of a “happy day for the museum”. As chairman of the state foundation running the museum, he has had little to be happy about in the past. The museum, which opened in 2007 at a cost of €33m, was initially to be run jointly by the state foundation and a private Arp association. They clashed immediately and in summer 2007 it was agreed that the foundation would run the museum on its own. However, this meant that the museum devoted to the work of the German-French artist had to do without the loans from the association, leaving them with huge gaps in their collection.

The foundation has found a new partner in Unicef. The charity is able to show the Rau collection, which includes works of Lucas Cranach, El Greco, Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne, and the museum has something with which to fill its empty space. Mr Hoffmann-Göttig insists that the museum was never meant to show only Arp works. However, whether the building—which was constructed to house mainly sculptures—is the right venue for the Rau collection, remains to be seen.