A small charcoal drawing by renowned German artist Wilhelm Busch has been returned to Berlin's Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) after disappearing for 80 years during World War II. The artwork, titled "The Three Robbers," measures just 14.7 x 13.8 centimeters and was originally created by Busch as a preparatory drawing for print templates that first appeared in 1868.
The drawing vanished in 1945 during the chaos of war, along with many other artworks from the Berlin museum. For decades, "The Three Robbers" remained missing, living up to its ironic title as stolen art. The piece had been in the possession of a Swiss family for four generations before the current owner decided to consign it to the Koller auction house in Zurich, where it was listed in the catalog for 1,600 euros.
The artwork's true origin was discovered by Franz-Carl Diegelmann, an expert at the Koller auction house, who recognized that the piece belonged to the Berlin museum. Upon learning of its history, the Swiss owner generously decided to return the drawing to its rightful home rather than proceed with the sale. Dagmar Korbacher, director of the Kupferstichkabinett, expressed her joy to BILD newspaper, saying, "We are very happy that this work is home again."
The story depicted in Busch's drawing tells a darkly humorous tale of three robbers who break into the house of a miller's daughter. However, their criminal enterprise goes disastrously wrong, and none of the thieves survive the encounter. The clever and resourceful miller's daughter dispatches each robber in a different gruesome manner: she crushes the first one with a millstone, rolls the second one flat on the millstone's axle, and suffocates the third by sitting on the lid of a money chest as he leans inside.
Wilhelm Busch, who lived from 1832 to 1908 and is best known for creating the characters Max and Moritz, wrote accompanying verses for the story titled "The Bold Miller's Daughter." His rhyme gleefully describes the robbers' fate: "So the three died quite unexpectedly. Oh, young man! Look here!! So a single girl often brings three men into misfortune!!!!"
Legal expert and attorney Nicole Mutschke, consulted by BILD, offered a modern perspective on the miller's daughter's actions. She noted that while current German law does allow self-defense, the defensive action must be the mildest means that safely ends the attack. "Killing all three robbers here can hardly be seen as the mildest means," Mutschke explained. "In favor of the miller's daughter, one could still think of a so-called excessive self-defense. In her case, it would rather be feared that she would have to answer for manslaughter and face a prison sentence of no less than five years."
The return of this drawing is particularly significant as the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett is still missing three other sheets from the same Wilhelm Busch series. Curator Anna Pfäfflin expressed hope for future recoveries, stating, "It would be a dream if we could have the complete series again one day." The successful return of "The Three Robbers" demonstrates the ongoing efforts to reunite stolen wartime art with their proper institutions and highlights the importance of provenance research in the art world.
