Under the terms of the agreement, the museum will pay the estate of Emma Budge an undisclosed sum to retain the seven commedia dell’arte figures by the Höchst, Fürstenberg and Fulda factories.
It was deemed extremely unlikely that her heirs had ever received the proceeds of their sale in 1937 after the estate’s account at the MM Warburg bank in Hamburg was “aryanized”.
The figures, which help to complete the two only known complete sets of the commedia dell’arte models by Höchst and Fürstenberg, were first bequeathed to the museum in 2006 as part of a larger gift from Edward and Kiyi Pflueger. The Pfluegers had acquired the figures from the collection of Otto and Magdalena Blohm, who purchased them at the Graupe Auction House.
This comes at the same time as a very rare Meissen Böttger stoneware figure that was once part of the Budge collection has been given an export stop in the UK.
The commedia dell’arte figure will be sold overseas unless a buyer can be found to match the asking price of £270,000.
The figure was acquired by a prominent member of the Jewish community who escaped Nazi Germany in April 1938.
The decision on the export licence will be deferred until October 1.
