Missing drawing back in Dresden's Kupferstich-Kabinett

After almost 80 years, the drawing "Pilgrims in the Roman Campagna", which has been missing since the Second World War, is returning to the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett. According to the museum, which is part of the Dresden State Art Collections (SKD), the watercolor brush drawing by Victor Paul Mohn (1842-1911), a pupil of Ludwig Richter, was acquired in 1908 and reappeared in the run-up to an auction in Munich. According to SKD, the owner donated the sheet to the museum as part of an amicable agreement brokered by the art auction house.

"It is always a very special moment when one of the Kupferstich-Kabinett's works lost during the war turns up unexpectedly," said Stephanie Buckund, Director of the Kupferstich-Kabinett, thanking the auction house for supporting its return. The landscape study was created in 1866 on a trip to Italy, which the young painter undertook together with Albert Venus and Carl Wilhelm Müller, said Buck. "It also tells of inspiration through travel and friendship."

Origin clearly established

The work is published in the Kupferstich-Kabinett's catalog of drawings lost during the war and in the Lost Art Database of the Stiftung Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste. After it was consigned to the auction house, SKD staff and provenance researchers identified it as a Dresden war loss.