THE SHARDS
come from an antique porcelain collection that was almost completely destroyed by the Russian occupiers at the end of the Second World War. It serves as a testimony to the senseless destruction that war causes at all times.
History
Japanese porcelain of the 16th and 19th centuries was mainly produced for European aristocratic houses.
The porcelain collection of the Piatti family was founded in the 18th century (ca. 1760) and has been enlarged with valuable pieces over generations.
The family had to flee from the Russians during the Second World War. Before that, the valuable porcelain was walled up in the cellar of Loosdorf Castle as a hiding place.
The hiding place was betrayed to the Russian occupiers and then smashed into thousands of shards with unimaginable destructive fury.
All the shards were collected after the family's return and placed in the so-called "shard room" in the museum.
Porcelain collection today
Since the end of 2022, the porcelain collection is back in Loosdorf Castle.
In the next years, the collection will be elaborated by the University of Applied Arts as part of the "Broken Collection" project.
Among other things, the main topics of restoration, conservation and art history will be examined and dealt with in more detail.
The kick-off event took place on May 20 in Loosdorf Castle. A first insight into the project work of the university was shown.
The exhibition in the course of the kick-off event can be visited until August 25 by appointment. Details can be found under "Museum - Opening Hours".
Ö1 Leporello
Ö1 reports on the history of the "Scherbenzimmer" and the porcelain collection of Loosdorf Castle in connection with the project "Broken Collection" of the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Porcelain collection in Japan
The collection was analyzed by a Japanese university on site in 2015 and officially confirmed as Japanese cultural property.
A large part of the collection was subsequently restored in Japan by world-renowned restorers with the great assistance of Ms. Machiko Hoshina.
The aim was, among other things, that the shards, as a result of war crimes, find "peace" again through restoration in their country of origin, Japan.
Parts of the collection were presented at the "Spouse Program" of the G20 Summit in Osaka.
Exhibitions
On the 4th of November 2020, the exhibition "The Tragedy of Loosdorf Castle" opened at the OKURA Museum of Art in Tokyo.
The exhibition tells the tragic story of the Piatti family's porcelain collection. For this purpose, selected pieces were restored in Japan and impressively exhibited together with the shards.
The exhibition was also shown at the Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum near Nagoya, at the Hagi Uragami Museum in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and finally at the Kyushu Ceramic Museum in Arita.
"The Tragedy of Loosdorf Castle"
"The Destruction and Rebirth of Exported Old-Imari - The Tragedy of Loosdorf Castle" - Exhibition of the porcelain and shard collection at the Okura Museum of Art in Tokyo.
© Takao Oya
