Endowments
In addition to the option of making tax-deductible monetary and material donations to the Veste Coburg Art Collections, sponsors can also increase the Coburger Landesstiftung’s endowment capital with a major donation in kind. This is an attractive option, especially for larger collections that owners wish to permanently transfer to the Veste Coburg Art Collections. Compared to a donation, an endowment has the advantage of being tax-deductible over a longer period. The Coburger Landesstiftung, which is not required to pay business taxes according to a notice of assessment by the Coburg Tax Office and exclusively and directly exists for tax-reduced, charitable purposes, can issue a “Receipt of Endowment to the Coburger Landesstiftung’s endowment capital (endowment)”. This means 10% of the total amount of each endowment is tax-deductible over a period of 10 years. Benefactors need only present this receipt to their tax office with their regular tax return. The process is simple and does not even require a notary’s signature.
The following endowments were made to the Coburger Landesstiftung in recent years:
“Böhm-Hennes Collection”
“Werner Uhlmann Collection”
“Karla and Dr. Günther Bräutigam Collection”
Böhm-Hennes Collection
Heinz Böhm-Hennes (1914–2002) and his wife Anneliese Böhm-Hennes, née Waldrich (1922–2006) amassed an impressive collection of German drawings from the 19th century over a period of many decades. These works include pages by artists such as Carl Gustav Carus, Caspar David Friedrich, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld and Moritz von Schwind.
In December 2006 their son and heir Stefan Böhm Hennes established the “Stiftung Böhm-Hennes” as an endowment to the Coburger Landesstiftung foundation. The endowment continues to grow; in 2017 additional works were transferred to the Coburger Landesstiftung. The prized collection of documents closes a gap in the Department of Prints and Drawings of the Veste Coburg Art Collections. The endowment ensures that these works of art remain permanently available to the public.
The foundation was documented in a catalogue:
Klaus Weschenfelder and Christiane Wiebel (publishers), Mit dem Blick des Zeichners. Aquarelle und Zeichnungen der deutschen Romantik und des 19. Jahrhunderts aus der Sammlung Böhm-Hennes, [From the Artist’s Perspective. Watercolor paintings and drawings from the German Romantic period and the 19th century from the Böhm-Hennes collection], Berlin/Munich 2009.
Photo: Jakob Philipp Hackert (1737 – 1807): Landscape with River, Gouache and Watercolor, 1766; Inv.No. Z. 6484
Karla and Dr. Günther Bräutigam Ceramic Collection
Karla (1925–2016) and Dr. Günther Bräutigam (1925–2018) were a married couple who collected contemporary ceramics over a period of thirty years. They amassed a collection of over 200 international ceramic pieces, which were successively acquired by the Veste Coburg Art Collections. Most of the pieces were donated to the museum as part of an endowment in 2017.
The collection focuses on German pottery vessels. Nearly all of the most important ceramic artists who worked during the 1970s to the 1990s are represented here. However, the collection is also enriched with important works from Great Britain, which were acquired during the many trips the couple took there.
Photo: Hans Coper (1920 – 1981): Vase, stoneware, around 1973, Inv.No. a.S. 5865
Werner Uhlmann Collection
Prof. Dr. Werner Uhlmann passed away in 2011. He was a friend to the museum and a patron of the art collections for many years. As part of his will, he transferred his collection comprising about 1,000 non-European edged weapons to the Veste Coburg Art Collections.
This generous donation features a number of interesting everyday weapons, handicrafts and ethnological gems, some of which are of outstanding quality. The collection spans multiple continents, with a few pieces originating from individual African tribes, to the former Ottoman territory of Maghreb, Arabia and with a strong emphasis on the region of India/Persia all the way to Southeast Asian countries.
The Uhlmann collection was presented to the public as part of a special exhibition in 2015. A catalogue was published:
Kunstvolle Waffen des Orients. Ausgewählte Blankwaffen der Sammlung Werner Uhlmann vom Maghreb bis nach Indien, Alfred Geibig und Heiner Grieb, 164 S., 221 Abb., Coburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-87472-097-7
