From the Department of Antiquities to the Coin Cabinet: various collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (State Museums of Berlin) left their mark in the files of the Vermögensverwertungsstelle.

First and foremost, the expertise of the museum staff was called for. Sometimes such an expert opinion was followed by a purchase made by the respective department – as shown by the cases of Emil Julius Gumbel’s coin collection and Ferdinand Mainzer’s collection of antiquities.

In 1934, Kurt Regling, director of the Coin Cabinet at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, acquired some of the coins from Emil Julius Gumbel’s confiscatedBy confiscating assets, government officials initially deprived owners of the authority to dispose of their bank accounts, household furnishings, securities, etc., which were placed under state administration. More property for the museum’s collection after having them appraised.

Parts of Ferdinand Mainzer’s collection of antiquities found their way into the antiquities department of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in 1943 before the collection was put up for auction.

How was the Islamic Department of the Staatliche Museen involved in the sale of Oskar Skaller’s art collection?