Franz Koenigs

Franz Wilhelm Koenigs (b. Kierberg (near Brühl), September 13th 1881; d. Cologne, May 6th 1941) was a Dutch banker and artcollector.

Koenigs was born as German citizen but obtained later the Dutch nationality.

In 1941 he fell from a train platform at Cologne station in front of a train and died. At present descendants believe that the Nazis murdered him by throwing him under a train. [ "Moscow Conference: My Grandfather's Collection" , 10-11 April, 2000 [http://www.libfl.ru/restitution/conf/koenigs.html] ]

He collected an impressive number of drawings, known as the Koenigs collection. Due to the depression he came into financial problems and pawned the art collection, under the condition that it should be exhibited in the museum Boymans. In 1939 the Jewish owners of the bank liquidated the bank and at that moment Koenigs was not able to pay back the loan, subsequently the bank sold the collection to the owner of the museum Van Beuningen.

In January 1941 Van Beuningen sold the whole collectie to Hans Posse, who acted for the Führermuseum in Linz. During the war the allied countries decided with the Joint Declaration that all transactions between the occupied countries and the German occupier would be invalid, and that all art should be returned.

The Soviet troops looted the art collection after the war and brought in to the Sovjet Union. The Sovjet authorities denied decennia long that they had the art collection in possession. However, in the nineties the it became clear that the Sovjet troops had looted the art collection. The major part of the collection was exhibited in the Pusjkin museum in Moscow and a minor part in Kiev. [ "Speech to be delivered by the Prime Minister at the exhibition of works from theKoenigs Collection, returned from Ukraine" [http://www.rijksvoorlichtingsdienst.nl/dsc?c=getobject&s=obj&objectid=4620] 8 July, 2004]

On request of the Dutch government the Ukranian authoriteis returned the part of the collection that was in Kiev. "Netherlands hails return of stolen art" by Helen Fawkes [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3640951.stm BBC] Tuesday, 20 April, 2004]

More than 300 drawings from the same collection were traced to Moscow 10 years ago, but Russia has so far refused to hand them back. [ "Restitution by Russia of Works of Art Removed from German Territory at the End of the Second World War" [http://www.ejil.org/journal/Vol7/No1/art4-02.html#TopOfPage] Tuesday, 20 April, 2004]

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