Torn Modernism illuminates an important moment in the history of the Kunstmuseum Basel's collection. In 1937 the Nazi cultural policy denounced thousands of works as "degenerate" and forcibly removed from German museums. The Third Reich's Ministry of Propaganda correctly assumed that a portion of such works would find buyers abroad, in this way certain artworks deemed "internationally exploitable" reached the art market via various channels. Georg Schmidt (1896-1966), the museum's director at the time, managed in 1939 to acquire the Painting Animal Destinies by Franz Marc (1880-1916) and twenty avant-garde masterpieces all at once. In the catalogue, renowned experts trace the events based on the seizures in German museums and explain the historical contexts. The actors of the institutions and the art market are presented, and the Nazi regime's act of cultural violence is revealed, which resulted in an artificial fragmentation of Modernism into art that was "exploitable" on the one hand, and art that had been destroyed or forgotten on the other. Contributions on the auction of the Galerie Fischer in Lucerne, on Georg Schmidt's approach, and on the classification of the acquisitions in the context of Basel's collection history bring specific Swiss aspects into focus.

In her masterpiece of 2,75 x 21 metre, Ellen Harvey painted the region of Bruges as a contemporary, impressive interpretation of a Google Earth map, and in this publication she restores the ties between the city of Bruges and the harbour. In the new installation, behind a mirrored wall punctuated with peepholes, Harvey has hung a selection of paintings dating from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century, all of which belong to the reserve collection. Her work is an invitation to rediscover these rarely seen artworks. The paintings of the city, the canals, and the sea are reflected in the panorama on the opposite wall: Harvey's painted maps (2.75 x 21 meter) based on satellite images. The elaborate waterways, executed in mirrored glass, demonstrate the importance of the rivers and canals for the city. The British artist Ellen Harvey (b1967) lives and works in New York. Her work includes video art, installations and paintings. She has exhibited throughout the world, from Warsaw to Berlin, Los Angeles to Prague etc. Between 1999 and 2001 she brightened up the streets of New York with her 'NY Beautification Project': 40 small tondos and oval landscape scenes were applied between graffiti and tags on places and carriers in the city, such as containers, garage doors, walls...