The bronze that once watched over the Stern gallery garden

A photograph in the Max Stern fonds shows a forward-leaning bronze figure outdoors. The Max Stern Art Restitution Project identifies it as a work by Friedrich Coubillier and places it in the garden of the Galerie Stern on Düsseldorf’s Königsallee until late 1937. Its size and any identifying marks are unknown in the published record.

In November 1937 the art periodical Die Weltkunst named Coubillier among sculptors whose works were exhibited. The project pairs that listing with a more specific clue: Selma Stern’s inventory of possessions from June 1938 gives the bronze a name, Runenwerfer. It is the name in that document, while the artist’s original title remains unconfirmed.

The sculpture’s story therefore survives in a photograph and family paperwork from the period when Nazi persecution ended the Sterns’ gallery business. The project does not document how this bronze left their possession or where it went. The original garden photograph, preserved in box 19, file 4 of the fonds, remains the most direct visual record of this example.