Dismas and Gestas, the Good and the Bad Thieves, Master of the Kalkar St Anne Altarpiece (attributed to), c. 1490 - c. 1510

…; from the dealer Georg Plach (1818-1885), Vienna, 700 Gulden, to the K.K. Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie, Vienna, 1871, inv. nos. H.I. 20562, 20563, H 257 and H 258;{The first numbers are from the museum’s inventory book, the _Hauptinventarbuch_, where they are described as _Schächer mit Engel_ (H.I. 20562) and _Schächer mit Teufel_ (H.I. 20563). With the other numbers, the sculptures are described in the _Holzinventarbuch_ as _Figur des rechten Schächers_ (H 527) and _Figur des linken Schächers_ (H 258). My thanks to Dr Sebastian Hackenschmidt, Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna (written communication, 31 May 2014).} exchange by the museum (by then called Staatliches Kunstgewerbemuseum){The two figures and a group of 21 sculptures, as well as furniture pieces and tiles from the museum’s depot were exchanged for a group of Italian 15th- and 16th-century textiles. The two statuettes were appraised at RM 4,000 making them the costliest pieces in the exchange, which amounted to a total worth exceeding RM 20,000.} with dealer Oskar Hamel (d. 1946),{G. Anderl, ‘Die Stunde der Ariseure: Die unrühmliche Rolle die der Kunsthandel bei der ‘Arisierung’ jüdischen Vermögens gespielt hat: Ein Sittenbild aus dem Wien der jahre 1938ff’, _Der Standard (Album)_, 3-4 October 2009: ‘Dealer duo Karoline Nehammer and Oskar Hamel were among the most shameless beneficiaries of this situation. According to official investigations after the war, Hamel’s assets had increased more than 13-fold during the Nazi era, and the spreads between purchase and sale prices had been exorbitant. A report written in August 1945 by the department for safeguarding assets in the then State Office for the Interior says about Hamel’s rise after the ‘Anschluss’: ‘The business was very modest. That changed fundamentally when the upheaval came. Hamel got going and became a millionaire. Today he owns the former Liechtenstein Castle Seebenstein, which he prepared as a furniture depot, then a furniture warehouse in the tennis hall of the Auersperg Palais, then the shop at 11 Piaristengasse and is Treasurer of the Dorotheum.’’ (translated from the German).} Vienna, 30 May 1943; acquired by Hubert W. Krantz (d. 1963), Aachen, 1943; his heirs, sale Cologne (Van Ham), 16 November 2013, no. 1204 (as ‘South-German, 18th century’), €12,500, to the dealer Hopp-Gantner, Starnberg, 2013; from whom, €98,000, to the museum, with the support of the Frits en Phine Verhaaff Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds and the Ebus Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds, July 2014

Bibliography and list of abbreviations for the provenance (pdf)