WAG removing former director Eckhardt’s name, continuing probe over Nazi allegations

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This article was published 09/01/2024 (639 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq has begun the process of removing Ferdinand Eckhardt’s name from the main entrance hall, website and other gallery materials following recent allegations that the former WAG director was a Nazi supporter while living in Germany in the 1930s.

A statement about the decision, based on an independent internal investigation, was posted on WAG-Qaumajuq’s website in December.

The gallery says it is continuing to research the source of donations made by Eckhardt and the Eckhardt-Gramatté Foundation (his late wife was the composer and musician Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté), and if any Nazi-confiscated art is discovered in the collection, “all efforts would be made to return it to the rightful owners or their heirs.”

“The gallery has been doing this research for several decades; and while no gaps in the ownership in the Eckhardt-Gramatté Collection at WAG-Qaumajuq have been found, this investigative work has not been concluded.”

WAG-Qaumajuq says it is committed to examining any new allegations regarding the collections and will keep the public updated.

In November, The Walrus published a story under the headline “Was the Winnipeg Art Gallery led by a Nazi?” linking Eckhardt — a prominent art historian and driving force behind the creation of the current WAG location on Memorial Boulevard — to the Nazi party.

In the article, Winnipeg writer Conrad Sweatman writes that Eckhardt, who moved to Berlin in the late 1920s, signed an oath of allegiance to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and produced “several polemics in far-right and Nazified journals in the early 1930s, urging, among other things, that Germany’s cultural arena align itself with the goals of the Nazi state” as well as worked for IG Farben, “the same company that built the Auschwitz concentration camp and manufactured Zyklon-B, used in the gas chambers to kill over 2.5 million people.”

In a Free Press piece following the publication of the Walrus story, Stephen Borys, director and chief executive officer of WAG-Qaumajuq, said “the only surprising thing is so many things are missing and not substantiated or provided without citations or references, so there are a lot of big gaps.”

The Walrus article draws heavily upon Eckhardt’s unpublished memoirs, which the Archives of Manitoba had held since his death in 1995. Those files were made accessible to the public last fall, and have since also served as part of WAG-Qaumajuq’s internal investigation, along with a review of the gallery’s archives.

Borys recommended the removal of Eckhardt’s name, which was approved by the gallery’s board of governors.

“WAG-Qaumajuq has worked hard to be a leader in making institutional changes to create a more equitable Gallery where all feel represented and welcome. All this work around Eckhardt’s past is part of a continued journey towards equity, decolonization, and reconciliation — in all its forms,” the statement concludes.

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca