Open letter to Tina Wienecke, Hegar Haus Freiburg

Dear Frau Wienecke,
As you know, since I returned to Europe in 2012 I have resumed my search for the missing paintings and for a way to be compensated for the over 350, 000€ loss from 2003. I was advised by the Anwaltskammer to contact your professional insurance to ask for a settlement; however, they say that you will not approve it. I am writing to ask you to do this. I know that you are fully aware of all the circumstances surrounding this case, and that despite your assurances that you were trying to ‘help’ me, you did not follow correct procedure for the insurance claim. You did not instigate an investigation. You did not contact the shipping company to get insurance directly from them. You knew I was being drugged. You fraudulently continued our working relationship for over 1 ½ years although as you knew the deadline imposed by the insurance company had passed 6 months after the event occurred. You used this time to harass me about why I wasn’t painting any more.
People continue to harass me to go back to painting and continue to drug me against my will. My life is in danger because of this. I haven’t earned a living since this time. I don’t know who it is who is so invested in the paintings that they would interfere with my life to this degree. Honestly, I haven’t had the energy to paint since I collapsed in 1991 from exhaustion, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day, being drugged by my roommate, all the chemicals from the paint I had ingested over the years, and the death of my mother. The fact is, I was never that good at it but I worked really hard and was able to produce things I was proud of and other people liked. If you were to look at other artists whose output was on the same level none of them lived past 36 years of age. I almost died also. Instead of dying I rebuilt my life in a healthier way around music and acting, activities I had been engaged in long before I started painting in college. But people are obsessed with who I was before and won’t let me begin my life anew. It has been 25 years since I stopped painting and still people are harassing me to go back. Why. Who.
I have to rehabilitate my reputation. Recover my health. I need to buy a house. The only way I am going to be able to do this is with the money from the insurance. If you had done your job 10 years ago and made sure I got a settlement and recovered the missing work or if there had been no damage and theft at all my life would have been very different - Volksbank would have given me an exhibition. I would have had the chance to establish myself and be successful. Who knows, maybe with some positive events I might have gone back to producing more paintings. Certainly no one should wonder why I don’t after all this. Under what circumstances was I to paint again – I never had the money, time, health, a stable place to live and work, positive people around me again. Art is not a product of suffering. It is a highly specialized thinking process, pure and simple. What inspired me was joy.
I don’t know why you showed so much contempt for me. I didn’t deserve it. Please make amends to me now.
Kind Regards,
Dvorah Silverstein