Reflecting on Legacy

With Rafael Cardoso (art historian and descendant of Hugo Simon), Rebecca Friedman (Holocaust Claims Processing Office, New York State Department), Jason Osborn (film maker and descendant of Max Osborn) and Lisa Marei Schmidt (director, Brücke-Museum).

Anchored in provenance research, the exhibition Biographies of Modern Art: Collectors and Their Artworks introduces eight Jewish collectors, who supported the Brücke artists in their time. The exhibition honours the collectors for their dedication to modern art and serves as a reminder of the injustices they suffered under the Nazi regime.

This event focuses on the perspectives of the collectors’ heirs and descendants. On the last day of the exhibition, we want to look back as well as forward and give Rafael Cardoso, Rebecca Friedman and Jason Osborn – three important protagonists in the context of the exhibition and in the associated provenance research – space to share their impressions and personal expierences of the exhibition project at the Brücke-Museum. The conversation will be introduced with opening remarks by Lisa Marei Schmidt.

Rafael Cardoso is an art historian and writer. He is a member of the postgraduate faculty in art history (PPGHA) at Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and a research associate at the Lateinamerika-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin. He is the author of numerous books, essays and articles on the history of art and design in Brazil in the 19th and 20th centuries, including Modernity in Black and White: Art and Image, Race and Identity in Brazil, 1890-1945 (Cambridge University Press, 2021). He has also authored four works of fiction, including the historical novel O Remanescente (Companhia das Letras, 2016), translated into German as Das Vermächtnis der Seidenraupen (S. Fischer, 2016). He is a member of PEN-Berlin, AICA-Deutschland, Deutscher Verband für Kunstgeschichte and chairs the board of the Hugo Simon Stiftung. He currently holds the 2024 Aby-Warburg-Gastprofessur at Warburg Haus in Hamburg.

Rebecca Friedman is Senior Art Claims Specialist at the Holocaust Claims Processing Office (HCPO) of the New York State Department of Financial Services, where she has worked on art restitution claims since 2004.  She received a BA in Art History from Columbia, an MA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London and later graduated with a JD from Brooklyn Law School.  Prior to joining the HCPO in 2004, Ms. Friedman worked in the art world for several years.

Jason Osborn is a filmmaker. He has worked with well-known artists such as Dagmar Krause and David Bowie and has been musical director on productions such as The Threepenny Opera and The Seven Deadly Sins. As a composer, he has written music for film and theater, including Couples and Robbers and the BBC production Absolute Hell. He has worked with renowned actors such as Dame Judi Dench and Bill Nighy and has composed for numerous TV documentaries. Since 2009, he has been increasingly dedicated to promoting Georgian cinema, including through the London Georgian Film Festival.

Price info: Public activities and events are free with museum admission.

Booking: No advance registration is required.

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