Lothar Malskat

Who was Lothar Malskat?

Lothar Malskat was a German painter and art restorer who repainted medieval frescoes of Marienkirche in Lübeck.

Malskat was a painter from Königsberg. In 1951 he was part of the group of Dietrich Fey, whose firm was commissioned to restore the frescoes of cathedral of Marienkirche in Lübeck. The cathedral had been severely damaged in World War II bombings and left neglected after the war, so the medieval frescoes on its walls had nearly disappeared. The church had received donations worth DM 150,000 for restoration and Fey's company did the work behind closed doors. The work was finished September 2, 1951.

The restorers were praised for their good work. The frescoes were unveiled during the seven-hundredth anniversary celebrations of the founding of the Marienkirche; present dignitaries included various government ministers, including Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. The West German government printed 2 million postage stamps depicting the frescoes.

The next year Malskat announced that he had painted the frescoes himself. When he was ignored, he told his own lawyer to sue both Fey and himself. Both men were eventually arrested.

The trial began in 1954. Evidence included Malskat's other forgeries of works of Marc Chagall and Toulouse-Lautrec.