Exporting Art – the GDR’s state trade agency

In order to regulate the trade in works of art, antiques and handicrafts, the State Art Trade (Staatlicher Kunsthandel) was founded in 1974 as a state-owned trade body for Fine Arts and Antiques (VEH Bildende Kunst und Antiquitäten). Previously independent galleries and workshops were incorporated into it. The State Art Trade was also involved in the export of artworks to non-socialist countries, especially to the Federal Republic of Germany and Western Europe. To this end, it worked closely with Kunst und Antiquitäten GmbH, which was part of a special foreign trade department (Bereich Kommerzielle Koordinierung) headed by Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski.

For artists from the GDR, this was an important opportunity to increase their international reputation and to obtain claims on foreign currency contingents through sales, which they could then use to finance travel outside the socialist economic area. In her dissertation "Between Ideology and Commerce: The art market in the GDR using the example of contemporary art from the state art trade 1974-1990” (Zwischen Ideologie und Kommerz. Der Kunstmarkt der DDR am Beispiel der Gegenwartskunst des Staatlichen Kunsthandels 1974-1990) at the TU Dresden, Sabine Tauscher traced the structure and development of the state art trade. In the interview, she presents her research, which she is currently continuing with a focus on the export business with art from the GDR.

Sabine Tauscher’s PhD thesis can be read online via TU Dresden’s digital repository: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa2-388750

Furthermore, Sabine Tauscher is the director of Forum Waldenburg: https://www.forum-waldenburg.de/