Esther Tisa

Biobibliography:

Esther Tisa Francini has been working for the Museum Rietberg since 2008, since 2013 as Head of the Archives and Provenance Research. She studied history in Zurich and Paris, and specialized in museum, collection and art market history, first in the field of Nazi looted art and the role of Switzerland, later on non-european Art and transfer questions with dealers and collectors. She has curated several exhibitions at the Museum Rietberg: "From Buddha to Picasso. The collector Eduard von der Heydt" (2013), about the founding collector of the museum, "Dada Africa: The dialogue with the other" (with Ralf Burmeister and Michaela Oberhofer) (2016), as a starting point with one of the most important collector of African art, Han Coray, and "The Question of Provenance. Unwrapping Collection History" (2018/2019), giving an introduction to research questions within the collection history.  

She is a member of the Internationaler Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V. since 2001. Actually, she is working on another exhibition about the collection history and is part of the interdisciplinary research project (2018-2022) "Hans Himmelheber – African Art and entangled knowledge production".

• Itineraries of Art: Provenance Research into the Collection of Chinese Art of the Museum Rietberg, in: The Museum Rietberg. History, Collection and Activities, Arts of Asia, September – October 2019, S. 98 –105.

• 20 Jahre Washingtoner Prinzipien und die Schweiz: Politik, Forschung und Transparenz im Umgang mit der Geschichte von Kunstwerken, in: Eva Blimlinger (Hg.): (k)ein Ende in Sicht. 20 Jahre Kunstrückgabegesetz in Österreich, Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 8, Herausgegeben von Eva Blimlinger und Heinz Schödl, Wien 2018, S. 61- 76.

•  mit Ralf Burmeister und Michaela Oberhofer (Hg.): Dada Afrika. Dialog mit dem Fremden, Zürich 2016 (also in English).

•  «‘Ein Füllhorn künstlerischer Schätze‘ – Die Sammlung aussereuropäischer Kunst von Eduard von der Heydt», in: Eberhard Illner (Hrsg.): Eduard von der Heydt. Kunstsammler, Bankier, Mäzen, München/London/New York 2013, S. 136-199 (only in German).