Blue-eyed bargains: Nazi-era acquisitions at the museum of far eastern antiquities in Sweden

This article examines the provenance of cultural objects acquired by the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm during the National Socialist era. Taking the 1937 acquisition of two Chinese bronze tripods from Josef Plaut as its point of departure, the study investigates the circumstances of the sale in relation to the Washington Principles and the Terezín Declaration. The analysis subsequently expands to the museum’s acquisition practices between 1933 and 1938. This process identifies a further case involving the 1934 acquisition of books and journals from the scholar Alfred Salmony. While the evidence does not, on its own, establish a structural problem in the museum’s acquisition practices, it demonstrates that objects were acquired on more than one occasion from Jewish sellers in vulnerable positions during the 1930s.