In 1919, Arthur Rosthorn loaned two items to the MAK, a silver globe and an agate bowl, both from China. Arthur Rosthorn had worked at the Austro-Hungarian embassy in China from 1896 to 1906 and from 1911 to 1917. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was the president of the Association of Friends of Asian Art and Culture in Vienna. He was critical towards Austria’s “Anschluss” to National-Socialist Germany. In 1939, Arthur Rosthorn sold the globe to the MAK, the bowl remained at the museum as a loan. There is no indication that Arthur Rosthorn was persecuted by the Nazi regime and that he sold under duress.
