Research projects

Research

Current projects

In addition to collecting, preserving and mediating art, the traditional core activities of the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum are made up of the research in art and cultural history of Bavaria. Further key areas of focus are provenance research and projects on art technology. After all, the museums current exhibitions always reflect the results of scientific work.

Torah & Tablet

At the Bavarian School Museum Ichenhausen: A New Exhibition on the History of Jewish Schooling in Bavaria

At the Bavarian School Museum Ichenhausen, a branch of the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, the exhibition on the history of Jewish schooling has been redesigned and officially reopened on 19 May 2026. Together with the former synagogue and the Jewish cemetery, this extracurricular place of learning adds an important new dimension to Jewish remembrance culture in Bavaria.

The new exhibition invites visitors on a journey through time from the Middle Ages to the present day, with a particular focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It begins with the introduction of compulsory schooling for Jewish children in 1804 under Elector Max IV Joseph and concludes with the founding of the “Helene Habermann Gymnasium” in Munich in 2016.

3D models, historical photographs, interactive hands-on exhibits and interviews with contemporary witnesses bring the development of Jewish education vividly to life. In addition, a digital guide provides more in-depth information on the individual thematic sections.

The Bayerische Schulmuseum Ichenhausen is a branch museum of the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum.

Contact

Dr. Angelika Schuster-Fox
medien@bayerisches-nationalmuseum.de

The Silver Restitution Project

The Bayerisches Nationalmuseum is working on the restitution of 111 objects from the silver confiscation imposed on German Jews in 1939 to descendants of the last legitimate owners. The current project "Search for Heirs to Silver Objects Confiscated in 1939 and now in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum" is funded by the German Lost Art Foundation and the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and Art.

Contact

Since July 2025, the Provenance Research team has been part of the Bayerische Museumsagentur. It can be contacted at provenienz@museumsagentur-bayern.de BR-Podcast (eternal link) Forschungsverbund Provenienzforschung (eternal Link)

"White gold"

The Meissen Porcelain Collection Catalogue

The scholarly research encompasses the collections of Böttger stoneware and Böttger porcelain (72 objects) and Meissen porcelain with house painter decorations – in particular by the Aufenwerth and Seuter families of Augsburg (63 objects) – belonging to the Meissen Porcelain Collection Ernst Schneider Foundation located at Lustheim Palace. In addition to recording this part of the collection, the planned inventory catalogue will also include the life and achievements of the collector Dr Ernst Schneider.
The project is supported by the Edith Haberland Wagner Foundation, Munich.

Contact

Dr. Katharina Hantschmann
keramik@bayerisches-nationalmuseum.de

Excellent Ivories

Scientific Catalogue on Ivories

The project of a scientific catalogue of the ivory collection of the 16th to 18th centuries comprises the research on about 280 objects by some 70 artists from the ivory collection of the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum. These include figurative ivories (statuettes, groups of figures, reliefs, and tankard vessels) as well as turned ivories, which are on display in the museum's permanent exhibition and at the Kunstkammer of Burg Trausnitz, the branch museum in Landshut. The planned catalogue will be supplemented by an scientific essay on the history of the Munich ivory collection.
The project is funded by the Eleonore Schamberger Foundation and the Reiner Winkler Foundation.

Contact

Dr. Jens Burk
barock@bayerisches-nationalmuseum.de

Provenance research

Between 1933 and 1945, the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum acquired more than 5,000 objects, and another 70,000 objects were added after 1945. The museum was one of the first in Germany to take on the task of researching problematic aspects of its history and making them public. In the 1960s, around 700 works from Nazi possessions were transferred to the museum. These items are the focus of the investigation into their origins. The additions from Nazi holdings can be viewed online. We regularly proactively seek contact with aggrieved parties in order to return works to their rightful owners.

contact

Acquisition records 1933–1945 online

With the support of the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and Art, the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum has published its aquisition records from 1933 to 1950 online.
The inventory records have been published on the website of the Forschungsverbund Provenienzforschung Bayern (FPB) (the Bavarian network for provenance research) to facilitate the identification of Nazi looted art in the museum's holdings. It lists the circumstances of access to works of art that came to the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in the period between 1933 and 1950. Not every acquisition during this period (purchase, donation/endowment, bequest, exchange, etc.) has an unlawful, violence- or persecution-related context.
For data protection reasons, redactions had to be carried out in some places.

Zugangsbücher (externer Link)