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The Voyage of the Katzenstein Madonna

Artist
Renata Stih, German, born 1955,
Frieder Schnock, German, born 1953
Date
2013
Classification
Prints
Current Location
Not on view
Dimensions
each panel: 28 x 22 in. (71.1 x 55.9 cm)
installed: 28 x 45 in. (71.1 x 114.3 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Renata Stih & Frieder Schnock in memory of F.C. Katzenstein and his parents
Rights
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Object Number
6:2014a,b
NOTES
Artists Renata Stih and Frieder Schnock created this work in response to the captivating story of the 15th-century German Virgin and Child sculpture installed at right. Once owned by a German Jewish couple who were killed in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, the sculpture was seized by the Nazis. In 1949 it was restituted to their son, Dr. F. C. Katzenstein, who lent the work to the Museum that same year, delivering the painted wood sculpture in a hearse. The left panel of the collage features a reproduction of a letter from Katzenstein to a collection center for Nazi-confiscated art. The right panel features an X-ray depiction of the Madonna and Child surrounded by text quoted from a 1949 "St. Louis Star-Times" article.
2013 - 2014
Renata Stih & Frieder Schnock, Berlin, Germany

2014 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by the artists [1]

Notes:
[1] Deed of gift signed May 5, 4014 [SLAM document files]. Minutes of the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, May 5, 2014.