The New York Times' Carol Vogel reports today that a lawsuit has been filed by the heirs of Hungarian banker and art collector Baron Mor Lipot Herzog, calling for the return of a collection of artwork valued at more than $100 million. The lawsuit is against the Hungarian government, along with several museums administered by the government.
The lawsuit follows two decades of failed attempts by the heirs to convince the government to repatriate the collection, which includes works by Velázquez, Monet, El Greco, and Zurbarán. The Herzog collection was dispersed during World War II; some pieces were left in museums for protection, while others were stolen by the Nazis and later recovered and returned to Hungary. In 2008, a Hungarian court decided that the government did not need to return the artwork to the Herzog family.
The lawsuit calls for the return of 40 known works in Hungarian museums and asks for an inventory by the Hungarian government of all artwork from the Herzog collection in its possession.
The New York Times quotes the Herzog family's attorney described Hungary as “one of the countries that has been the most recalcitrant” when it comes to returning looted and stolen artwork. The family has engaged in legal claims with Poland, Russia, and Germany over the return of artwork. In the case of Russia, there is a 1999 lawsuit that is still pending.
According to Vogel, experts describe the Herzog case as "the world’s largest unresolved Holocaust art claim."
Showing posts with label Nazis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nazis. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Monuments Men Biographies: You Can Help!
About 345 men and women from thirteen countries served in the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (“MFAA”) section under the auspices of the Civil Affairs and Military Government Sections of the Allied Armies during World War II. These individuals worked tirelessly to protect and locate our cultural treasures during the war and, in the conflict's final year, returned more than 5 million cultural objects that were taken by the Nazis. Some remained in Europe for six years after the war, seeing to the restitution of cultural property.
The Monuments Men Foundation is working toward building upon the knowledge that has been collected about the Monuments Men and Women. I was interested to come across the Foundation's page that invites the public to contribute any information about the individuals whose stories the researchers have not yet collected. I hope that we do someday have biographies for each of them and I greatly admire the Foundation's efforts.
The Monuments Men Foundation is working toward building upon the knowledge that has been collected about the Monuments Men and Women. I was interested to come across the Foundation's page that invites the public to contribute any information about the individuals whose stories the researchers have not yet collected. I hope that we do someday have biographies for each of them and I greatly admire the Foundation's efforts.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Guggenheim Reaches Agreement with Malevich Heir
On February 8, 2010, The New York Times reported that the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation reached an agreement with the heirs of Russian artist Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935). The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice has acknowledged the heirs' ownership of an untitled work by Malevich, the originator of Russian Suprematism.The painting (c. 1916) is one of 70 works by Malevich that were exhibited in Berlin in 1927. During the exhibition, Malevich had to return to Russia and entrusted the paintings to friends. Malevich died in 1935, however, and matters were further complicated by Hitler's rise to power. Malevich's work was considered degenerate and banned by the Nazis. The paintings and drawings found their way into museum and private collections, which has led to efforts among Malevich heirs to reclaim ownership of these works.
The Guggenheim Foundation has described the details of the agreement as confidential but described it as "an amicable settlement," a sentiment echoed by the Malevich heirs. [NYT]
The Amber Room
In 1716, Russia's Peter the Great received a gift from the King of Prussia: the jewel-encrusted Amber Room. The Amber Room was intended to be a symbol of an alliance between Russia and Prussia and, as an 11 foot square hall of six tons of amber and gemstones, it was an impressive present; today, it would be valued at $142 million. The Amber Room was designed by German Baroque artist Andreas Schlüter and Danish craftsman Gottfried Wolfram and was installed in the Catherine Palace of Pushkin.
The Amber Room is a sad example of the devastation caused by Nazi looting during World War II. On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa and sent three million German soldiers into Russia. Air raids and ground assault put the lives of the Russian people in harm's way and were an enormous threat to Russia's greatest art treasures.
While the Hermitage Museum evacuated its most valuable works to the Urals, officials at the Catherine Palace attempted to safeguard the Amber Room by hiding the precious materials behind a thin wallpaper. This measure was to no avail. German troops discovered the room, disassembled it, packed it into 27 crates, and shipped it Germany, where was reinstalled in a museum on the Baltic Coast in Kaliningrad (then Königsberg).
The story does not end there, however. After being on exhibit for two years in Germany and with the end of the war approaching, the museum director, Alfred Rohde, was advised to dismantle the Amber Room and crate it once again. A year later in 1944, the town was bombed by allied forces and the museum left in ruins. The Amber Room crates were never found.
In an article on Smithsonian.com, writer Jess Blumberg explains that the most basic theory that historians have put forth is that the crates were destroyed in the 1944 bombing. Others believe that the crates will be discovered on the bottom of the Baltic Sea, while some speculate that the amber is still in present-day Kaliningrad. There is even a faction that suspects that Stalin had created a second (and therefore fake) Amber Room and that this was the room that the Nazis in fact stole. In 1997, German detectives received a tip that a man was selling an alleged panel piece from the Amber Room. The lead, however, was a dead end. The seller was the son of a German soldier and had no information about how his father obtained the panel.
Blumberg notes that there is even more intrigue to this story, citing an "Amber Room Curse." She writes,
In 2003, a 25-year long project to create a replica of the Amber Room was completed. The $11 million reconstruction can be seen today in St. Petersburg. [Smithsonian.com]
The Amber Room is a sad example of the devastation caused by Nazi looting during World War II. On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa and sent three million German soldiers into Russia. Air raids and ground assault put the lives of the Russian people in harm's way and were an enormous threat to Russia's greatest art treasures.
While the Hermitage Museum evacuated its most valuable works to the Urals, officials at the Catherine Palace attempted to safeguard the Amber Room by hiding the precious materials behind a thin wallpaper. This measure was to no avail. German troops discovered the room, disassembled it, packed it into 27 crates, and shipped it Germany, where was reinstalled in a museum on the Baltic Coast in Kaliningrad (then Königsberg).
The story does not end there, however. After being on exhibit for two years in Germany and with the end of the war approaching, the museum director, Alfred Rohde, was advised to dismantle the Amber Room and crate it once again. A year later in 1944, the town was bombed by allied forces and the museum left in ruins. The Amber Room crates were never found.
In an article on Smithsonian.com, writer Jess Blumberg explains that the most basic theory that historians have put forth is that the crates were destroyed in the 1944 bombing. Others believe that the crates will be discovered on the bottom of the Baltic Sea, while some speculate that the amber is still in present-day Kaliningrad. There is even a faction that suspects that Stalin had created a second (and therefore fake) Amber Room and that this was the room that the Nazis in fact stole. In 1997, German detectives received a tip that a man was selling an alleged panel piece from the Amber Room. The lead, however, was a dead end. The seller was the son of a German soldier and had no information about how his father obtained the panel.
Blumberg notes that there is even more intrigue to this story, citing an "Amber Room Curse." She writes,
Many people connected to the room have met untimely ends. Take Rohde and his wife, for example, who died of typhus while the KGB was investigating the room. Or General Gusev, a Russian intelligence officer who died in a car crash after he talked to a journalist about the Amber Room. Or, most disturbing of all, Amber Room hunter and former German soldier Georg Stein, who in 1987 was murdered in a Bavarian forest.
The Amber Room in 1940
Reconstruction of the Amber Room, completed in 2003
Thursday, February 4, 2010
German Court Nixes Return of Collection
On Friday, January 29, 2010, a German court denied an American man's request for the restitution of a collection of 4,300 posters that were taken from his father by the Nazis in 1938. The posters have been in the German Historical Museum's collection since 1990. The court acknowledged that Peter Sachs, son of art collector (and dentist to Einstein!) Hans Sachs, is the owner of the posters, but that the Museum was not required to return the collection.
This decision overturns a ruling made last year by a lower court in Germany, which granted the restitution of one poster in the German Historical Museum's collection to Peter Sachs.
The court has not submitted an explanation of its decision at this time. However, it is speculated that a compensation payment given to Hans Sachs in 1961 by the West German government has contributed to the decision. The 1961 compensation was 225,000 German marks (then worth $50,000). The 4,300 posters which survive an original collection of 12,500 posters are now valued at $6.3 million. It includes works by Toulouse-Lautrec, Jules Cheret, and Lucian Bernhard.
Peter Sachs has argued that the original compensation was made when it appeared that the collection had been destroyed in World War II. However, his father learned that part of it survived, but was in the communist East Germany. Hans Sachs attempted to obtain the collection from the East German Museum, where it was housed from WWII to 1990.
My hunch is that we have not heard the last of this case. We'll stay tuned to see what next steps will be taken by Peter Sachs and his attorney. [The Washington Post]
This decision overturns a ruling made last year by a lower court in Germany, which granted the restitution of one poster in the German Historical Museum's collection to Peter Sachs.
The court has not submitted an explanation of its decision at this time. However, it is speculated that a compensation payment given to Hans Sachs in 1961 by the West German government has contributed to the decision. The 1961 compensation was 225,000 German marks (then worth $50,000). The 4,300 posters which survive an original collection of 12,500 posters are now valued at $6.3 million. It includes works by Toulouse-Lautrec, Jules Cheret, and Lucian Bernhard.
Peter Sachs has argued that the original compensation was made when it appeared that the collection had been destroyed in World War II. However, his father learned that part of it survived, but was in the communist East Germany. Hans Sachs attempted to obtain the collection from the East German Museum, where it was housed from WWII to 1990.
My hunch is that we have not heard the last of this case. We'll stay tuned to see what next steps will be taken by Peter Sachs and his attorney. [The Washington Post]
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