Ona blustery day in late March 2015, I took refuge in Berlin’s Bode Museum for an insightful, curator-led tour of an exhibit called “The Lost Museum, Das Werschwundene Museum.” The German term verschwundene could also be translated as missing or disappeared.
Appearance, disappearance, and reappearance are recurrent themes in this unconventional and thought-provoking exhibit. As an art lover who relocated to Germany from the USA, I was intrigued by the tragic premise, that many of Berlin’s artistic treasures lost in World War II could still be seen.
But I underestimated something: the enormous power and emotional impact of displaying something wantonly damaged and considered gone.