Well, one point has to be set clearly.
Back in 1993, everybody knew that the Honeckers were selling their properties to get money, due to the failing health of Erich, the legal expenses and the everyday's needs of the exiled couple.
Then, no one from unified Germany's "Denkmalschutz" or other Authorities, had nothing to say and those goods were bought by a wealthy (italian) collector, through a Berlin-based dealer.
So, everything was
legally purchased and legally retained by this collector, since then.
27 years later, the collector decided to part with these pieces, via a well-established auction house. If he had anything to hide, he would have had many chances to sell the whole privately, in a confidential transaction.
Just a couple days before the auction would have taken place (the pieces were shown in the auction house's website, since early in 2020), the German State wakes up and tries to confiscate the whole?
An act that severely threatens the rights of private collecting, not having been anything illegal in the way the group was sold and acquired.
The fact that the
pro-tempore Federal President and Federal Chancellor are both former citizens of the deceased
Arbeiter-und-Bauern-Staat is not a sufficient reason to force other ones' rights. If the German State wanted those pieces, they could have simply decided totake part to the sale and make an offer, without this poor attempt to steal that group from its 100% rightful owner and have it for free.
Oh, maybe the auction house has some money to lose?
Certainly, the Auction House would loose its legal commission, from both the seller and the buyer.
And the seller, his pieces and the (big) money paid to buy Honecker's group.
All the best,
Enzo (E.L.)