Sixteen modern sculptures that were once condemned by the Nazis as "degenerate art" and later rediscovered by chance in Berlin bombing rubble have returned to the German capital for display. The sculptures, which became a worldwide sensation when they were found in 2010, are now being exhibited at the Petri Berlin House of Archaeology after extensive tours through German and European museums.

State archaeologist Matthias Wemhoff describes the collection as a "community of fate," and the 16 sculptures certainly look the part. They appear battered, incomplete, and covered with soot and verdigris after surviving decades buried in debris. The discovery created a sensation in 2010 when construction workers building the U5 subway line near Berlin's Red City Hall unearthed them from the bombed-out basement of a destroyed building at Königstraße 50.

Initially, archaeologists and art historians puzzled over the find, first suspecting that an art dealer had operated from the residential and commercial building. However, they were eventually identified as sculptures from the notorious 1937 Nazi propaganda exhibition "Degenerate Art" held in Munich. The Nazis used this derogatory term to vilify works of classical modernism that didn't conform to their heroic artistic ideology.

Wemhoff notes that the topic remains highly relevant today, pointing out that Donald Trump's administration in the United States has been pressuring museums to sanitize their historical presentations and impose their own artistic understanding. The parallels between past and present artistic censorship underscore the enduring significance of these recovered works.

The exhibition features works by various artists, including Otto Baum's "Standing Girl" (1930), Marg Moll's "Dancer" (circa 1930), Naum Slutzky's "Female Bust" (circa 1930), Karl Ehlers' "Girl with Grape" (1933), Gustav H. Wolff's "Standing Draped Figure" (1925), and Karl Knappe's "Hagar" (1923). Curator Marion Bertram, deputy director of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History, explains that the Nazis categorized their so-called degenerate art into three groups.

Category one included works intended for sale abroad in exchange for foreign currency. Category two, which encompassed the Berlin sculpture finds, was used in educational propaganda exhibitions and films. Category three was simply destroyed. Through this systematic approach, approximately 16,000 objects were lost, though most were paintings and graphics rather than sculptures, making these surviving pieces particularly valuable.

The sculptures serve as both artistic treasures and historical witnesses to cultural barbarism. Among the most poignant pieces is a work by Otto Freundlich, one of the 14 sculptors featured in the exhibition, who was murdered in 1943 at either Majdanek or Sobibor concentration camp. The emotional impact of seeing Karl Knappe's verdigris-covered "Hagar" and Freundlich's forehead-less head remains powerful despite their damaged condition.

For an archaeologist, Wemhoff finds it fascinating that the same materials survive from the 20th century as from antiquity – namely sculptures made of bronze, stone, and ceramic. Other materials couldn't withstand the fire and the fall from the fourth floor, where the Reich Propaganda Ministry maintained a storage facility, down to the building's basement. The sculptures' survival is almost miraculous given the destruction they endured.

The identification of some weathered and mortar-encrusted pieces as objects from the "Degenerate Art" exhibition only became clear when the head portion of Emy Roeder's sculpture "Pregnant Woman" emerged from the rubble. Photographs from the 1937 Munich exhibition provided crucial evidence, confirming that Marg Moll's magnificent "Dancer" and Richard Haizmann's marble abstraction "Figure" were also displayed there.

Wemhoff emphasizes that without these historical photographs, the upper half of Haizmann's work might never have been recovered from the debris, as no one would have recognized the found fragment as art. The documentation proved essential in identifying and preserving these cultural artifacts that might otherwise have been discarded as unrecognizable rubble.

The exhibition at Petri Berlin presents these damaged beauties in a more subdued setting than their dramatic first showing in 2012 at the Greek Court of the Neues Museum. Here on the fifth floor, they are displayed in glass cases surrounded by informational panels and photographs documenting the circumstances of their discovery, the original "Degenerate Art" exhibition, and their original condition before the war's devastation.

Despite the simpler presentation, the emotional impact remains profound. Seeing these works that were condemned by the Nazis and subsequently bombed by the Allies now displayed with museum reverence feels like a form of belated justice. The exhibition serves as both an artistic showcase and a powerful reminder of the importance of protecting cultural heritage from political persecution and destruction.

The Berlin Sculpture Find exhibition opened on October 16 and is expected to run for approximately one year at the Petri Berlin House of Archaeology on Gertraudenstraße 8. The museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM, and weekends from 10 AM to 6 PM, offering visitors the opportunity to witness these remarkable survivors of 20th-century cultural persecution.