The web of complicity is tough to break through, and it is rather depressing to even try.
However, inspired by recent events, we will in this next series of posts, attempt to highlight of few of the tricks used by various art market actors to disguise what they clearly suspect to be illicit origins.
In this first post, we revisit the El Greco, Portrait of a Gentleman, that was part of the Julius Priester collection before the Holocaust.
1. The Nazi looting of Jewish art collector Julius Priester and the network of art dealers who profited from the theft
Seized by the Gestapo in 1944 and finally restituted to the family of Julius Priester in 2015, the El Greco masterpiece ping ponged through a roster of art dealers one encounters frequently in Nazi looted art, forced sales and duress sales.
(The information below is taken from an archived version of Olga Kronsteiner's article in Der Standard, published in German on March 25, 2015 and republished by the Looted Art Commission. Please note that some of the information contained in the original article seems to have disappeared in the past five years.)
Link here: https://www.lootedartcommission.com/R62X7I61147)
List of usual suspects involved in the resale of the El Greco looted from the collection of Julius Priester
- St. Lucas Gallery
- (via Gestapo appraiser Bernhard Wittke)
- Frederick Mont
- (aka Fritz Mondschein)
- Rudolf Heinemann
- (aka Pinakos Gallery)
- Knoedler
- Swiss Trust company
- London Art Dealer
Several of these art dealers and art galleries made fortunes trading in art that had been owned by Jews persecuted by Nazis.
The repetitions and patterns that can be observed in their transactions provide an excellent opportunity to study some of the mechanisms used to cover up the origins of Nazi plunder.
In the case of the looted El Greco, the specific deception that interests us concerns the author of the provenance.
The provenance text was signed by one "R. Johnson". However, according to the Der Standard article, this was a pseudonym used by the author in order not to be associated with the dealer Derek Johns, former head of the old masters department at Sotheby's from 1974 to 1981.
2. The obvious question, for those interested in patterns and links, is, what other provenances were signed by "R. Johnson"?
Was there a real R. Johnson someplace?
An internet search turns up a (very real) Dr. James R. Johnson, Curator of Art History and Education at the Cleveland Museum of Art who in 1973 was lecturing on the "Enigma of El Greco" and who has written extensively on El Greco.
https://archive.org/details/cmapr2030
But Johnson is a very common name.
The art historian and dealer John Richardson used the pseudonym "Richard Johnson" according to the NYT.
It would be good to know who exactly authored this false provenance. And whether the same person authored author false provenances for looted art.
3. What can the false provenance (false provenances, plurial) tell us?
Were, for example, the names that were deceptively inserted into the ownership history of the looted El Greco reused to conceal other looted art?
Not all falsifiers of provenance information are as diligent as they could be. Some simply find a few names that have worked in the past and reuse them, again and again.
This, of course, forms a pattern.
Names that pop up in the provenance of this artwork include one:
"Vienna, Ritter von Schoeller"*
A person with such a name exists, we are told, but he had nothing to do with this El Greco.
Families of persecuted Jewish art collectors will recognise the tactic.
A name selected to fill a gap in the provenance and fool provenance researchers.
Well, like with forgeries, after a while a list of such names begins to form, and a tactic that once worked to conceal Nazi looted art becomes a giant red flag waving wildly in the wind.
*sources
Von heißen und edlen Männern - Of hot and noble men
https://www.lootedartcommission.com/R62X7I61147
excerpt from archived version of Der Standard
Zirkulierte über Jahrzehnte im Handel
14 Bilder wurden im November 1938 und im Mai 1939 in Priesters Wohnung sichergestellt. Den Rest der Einrichtung hatte der Industrielle in der Firma eines gewissen Max Föhr eingelagert, der nach Kriegsende auf eine Beschlagnahmung der Gestapo 1944 verwies. Recherchen Anne Webbers (CLAE Co-Chair) zufolge gelangte das Greco-Gemälde über den Gestapo-Schätzmeister Bernhard Wittke in den Besitz der Galerie St. Lucas, die es 1952 an ihren einstigen Geschäftsführer Fritz Mondschein verkaufte, der 1939 nach New York ausgewandert war.
Frederick Mont, wie er sich nach seiner Emigration nannte, trat Anteile an dem Bild an Kollegen ab: an den gebürtigen Deutschen Rudolf Heinemann (ab 1935 Pinakos Gallery, NY) sowie an die Knoedler Gallery (New York), die noch 1990 bei einer Ausstellung in Kreta als Leihgeber aufschien.
Dass die Provenienz des Gemäldes einen Makel hatte, wussten sämtliche der involvierten Händler. Webber verweist in diesem Zusammenhang auf den Verfasser des Katalogtextes namens "R. Johnson". Wie sie herausfand, handelt es sich dabei um ein Pseudonym, denn der Autor wollte nicht mit dem Händler als damaligem Eigentümer in Verbindung gebracht werden, zumal diese wegen der problematischen Geschichte besorgt gewesen sei. Gemäß STANDARD-Recherchen handelte es sich bei diesem Kunsthändler um Derek Johns, ehemaliger Leiter des Altmeister-Departments bei Sotheby’s (1974-1981), der das Gemälde dem Vernehmen nach im Auftrag eines Klienten für die Ausstellung in Kreta vermittelt hatte.
Schließlich wurde der "heiße" Edelmann spätestens 2003 in einer Schweizer Treuhandgesellschaft "geparkt", aus der ihn der Londoner Kunsthändler 2010 erwarb. Über Jahre hatten die Schweizer auf keine der Anfragen der Commission for Looted Art reagiert, die von den Erben mit dem Auffinden der Sammlung beauftragt wurde. Bis auf wenige Gemälde, die 1947 an Julius Priester restituiert wurden, verlief die Suche bis zu dessen Tod 1954 mehr oder weniger ergebnislos. In den vergangenen zehn Jahren spürte CLAE sechs Gemälde auf, mit dem El Greco hält man bei sieben. 30 Kunstwerke aus der Sammlung Priester gelten weiterhin als verschollen. (Olga Kronsteiner, DER STANDARD, 25.3.2015)
El Greco Stolen by Nazis and Sold by Knoedler Returns to Rightful Owners (Artnet)
The painting’s provenance was scrubbed, with records indicating that it came from the collection of one “Ritter von Schoeller, Vienna.”
- El Greco Stolen by Nazis and Sold by Knoedler Returns to Rightful Owners (Brian Boucher, March 24, 2015, https://news.artnet.com/market/el-greco-nazis-loot-returned-280817
Stolen art? Why no one can say for sure | (The Art Newspaper)
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