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| https://www.fold3.com/image/291857322 National Archives |
Erhard Göpel was an art historian who worked as an art dealer for Adolf Hitler.
Göpel's role in art looting was extensively documented by, among others, the OSS Art Looting Investigation Unit during and after the Second World War. His wife, Barbara, was also an art dealer.
The Göpels (or Goepels) are back in the news in 2018 as The Art Newspaper reports: "Widow of Hitler’s art dealer, Erhard Göpel, bequeaths Max Beckmann works to Berlin" by Catherine Hickley)"Erhard Göpel was a key member of the Linz Special Commission, the team of dealers who purchased—and looted—art across Europe for Hitler’s unrealised Führermuseum, planned for his home town of Linz. Göpel was instrumental in acquiring the Schloss family collection in Paris after it had been looted by the Gestapo. The collection, assembled by an Austrian-born French Jew, included works by Rembrandt and Frans Hals. After the war, Göpel evaded sentencing and spent the rest of his career organising exhibitions in Munich."...
In 1944, Göpel travelled to the Netherlands and Belgium on an art shopping spree with Hildebrand Gurlitt, the dealer whose collection caused a worldwide media sensation when it was discovered in the Munich apartment of his son Cornelius Gurlitt in November 2013. During their business trip they visited Beckmann, who was living in Amsterdam in exile with his wife Quappi. As a victim of Joseph Goebbels’s campaign against Modern art, Beckmann had left Germany the day before the Degenerate Art exhibition opened in Munich in 1937. "- The Art Newspaper, Feb 21, 2018
I. The Linz Collection of the Deutsches Historisches Museum shows 91 artworks that mention Göpel in a full text search and 55 that have Göpel in the provenance.
Unfortunately we did not manage to find a stable URL that links to the search result so one must either take a screen shot or copy the resultsBelow is a screenshot of the first of several pages.
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| Goepel or Göpel has 91 hits in the Linz collection database http://www.dhm.de/datenbank/linzdb/indexe.html |
Each artwork has a URL with more information.
For example,
https://www.dhm.de/gos-cgi-bin/linz/satz.cgi?Objekt=li002434
| Datenblatt li002434 | |
| Sammlung: Linzer Sammlung | |
|---|---|
| Objekttyp: Bild | |
| Titel: | Früchtestillleben mit Hummer, Pokalen und Weinkanne |
| Datierung: | 1645 (um) |
| Künstler: | Beyeren, Abraham Hendricksz van (Bollongier, H.) (1620-1690) |
| Material/Technik: | Leinwand |
| Maße: | 101 x 121 |
| Mü-Nr.: | 4467 Mü.-Nummer |
| Linz-Nr.: | 2425 |
| Ereignisse: | Vorbesitzer: Sammlung Chabot / Scheveningen (Privatbesitz Niederlande) Einlieferung: Dr. Erhard Göpel / Den Haag (Agent) Verbleib: Niederlande (Nederlands Kunstbezit 1685) |
11. The German Lostart.de site shows 12 artworks with Göpels in the text.
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III. The French Site Rose-Valland Musées Nationaux Récupération shows 13 entries for Göpel
IV. Göpel wrote a catalogue raisonné for Max Beckmann. But, given his Nazi art dealing, he was far from a purely disinterested scholar.
How reliable is Göpel's work as an art historian? The RKD shows 24 publications for which he is the author. Are they cited uncritically?
V. Göpel worked with other well-known dealers in looted art. As early as 1945-6, Göpel's networks, many of whom were arrested after the war, were documented by the OSS Art Looting Investigation Unit in its reports.
Below are mentions of Göpel or Goepel from the Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag List of Names complied by the Art Looting Investigation Unit in its Final Report of 1945-6:
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Goepel, Dr Erhard. Leipzig, Stieghtstrasse 76. Official Linz agent and buyer in Holland under Posse and Voss. Bought extensively in Holland and also travelled frequently in Belgium and France. Negotiated the forced sale of the Schloss Collection in Paris. Chief contacts: Vitale Bloch (Holland), Wuester, Wandl and Holzapfel (Paris).Wuester, Adolf. Bernau, Bavaria Bonn Schloesel. Painter and amateur dealer, long-time pre-war resident of Paris. Chief agent in France for acquisition of works of art for Ribbentrop. Intimate contactws with von Behr and Lohse. Acted as expert for ERR on French 19th century painting. Appointed art adviser to the German Embassy on 16 July 1942, with the rank of Consul. Involved in two exchanges with the ERR. With Rochlitz, probably the leading intermediary for German official buyers in the Paris art market. Close contact of Bornheim, Dietrich, Bammann (among German dealers); Martin, Rademacher, Kuetgens and Goepel (among German museum buyers). Supplied with works of art primarily by Schoeller, Mandl, Leegenhoek, Raphael Gerard and Hotel Drouot. Close contact of Goetz, Rochlitz, Schoeller, Pfannstiel, Avogli-Trotti and the Duc de Trevise. Travelled in Switzerland, Sweden and Spain, purchasing works of art. Extradition requested by French Government.
Holzapfel, Ward. Paris, 45 ave des Peupliers Vaucresson, chateau des Grands Huguenots. German American collector-dealer. Worked consistently throughout the war in the German interest. Expert in Dutch painting of the 17th century. Accomplice of Bruesch-Willer. Close contact of Hofer, Gurlitt, Plietzsch, Heim, Yousoupff and Mohnen. Adviser to Goepel on purchases for Linz. Married (1) Elsie Schmidt, separated; (2) Marie Trew. Left France for New York on 9 October 1945, having given order to ship his collections to the USA. These have been blocked provisionally by the French Government
Leegenhoek, M O. Paris, 1 rue de Rennes/230 blvd Raspail. Belgian national. Prominent restorer and subsequent dealer who sold extensively to Hofer, Lohse, Wendland, Wuester, Dietrich, Haberstock, Miedl, Goepel and the great majority of important German purchasers. Formerly associated with Lagrand, and connected with van der Veken and Renders in Belgium. Believed still to be in Paris. Possibly active in Wendland’s behalf.
Lefranc, Jean Francois. Paris, 9 quai Voltaire/26 ave du President Wilson. Leading collaborationist dealer. Vichy-appointed administrator of the Schloss Collection, and personally responsible for its liquidation; also for the liquidation of the Simon Bauer collection. Close contact of Lohse, Goepel and Postma. Informant and intermediary for other German buyers. Indicted by French Government (Seine Tribunal, Judge Frapier) and under arrest in Paris.
Mandl, Victor. Paris, 9 rue du Boetie. German refugee dealer, formerly active in Berlin. Highly important figure in German art purchases in Paris. Close contact of Wendland, Dietrich, Voss, Goepel, Muehlmann, Lohse, Loebl, Perdoux, Birtschansky and Wuester. Indicted by French Government for collaborationist activity.
Bloch, Dr Vitalo. The Hague, Sweelinkstraat 61. Art historian of Polish or Russian Jewish origin, who acted as purchasing agent and adviser to Muehlmann, Goepel and others for protection against the anti-Semitic laws. Intimate friend of Friedlander. Close contact of Hofer and Lohse. After Friedlander, most improtant figure in Dutch collaborationist art circles.
Cramer, Gustav. The Hague, Javastraat 38. Dealer, formerly in Berlin. Refugee in Holland where he worked mostly on commission. Specialist in objets d’art. Believed to have been backed by Muehlmann or Goepel. In touch with Hofer.
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The mention of Göpel (or Goepel) is a red flag, not only in Nazi era provenance, as the Art Looting Investigation Unit documented, but, given his role in criminal art dealing networks, quite possibly also as a source of information.
It would be interesting to compare the list of catalogues raisonnés authors to the Art Looting Investigation Unit list of Red Flag Names.
Identifiers for Erhard Göpel
Library of Congress authority ID: n85035777VIAF ID:93436676
GND ID:116705000
ISNI:0000 0001 1687 6515
SUDOC authorities ID:158671805
National Thesaurus for Author Names ID:071308202
RKDartists ID:339951
Getty ULAN ID: 500475919
see also:
Nazi Art Looting in Holland
Rare documents from the Dutch art market during World War II shed light on Nazi strategies for looting art for their planned Führermuseum Isabella Zuralski-Yeager | April 11, 2017 http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/nazi-art-looting-in-holland/
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