In this post, we look in art provenances that contain Meissner, a name that has appeared in connexion with Nazi-looted art.
The Dutch masterpiece The Oyster Meal by Jacob Ochtervelt was looted by Nazis, and even today is still missing from its history the years between 1945 and 1956. What is known, however, is that it popped up in 1965 at the Swiss gallery, Galerie Kurt Meissner in Zurich, which sold it to the US ambassador to the Netherlands, American investment banker and diplomat, J William Middendorf. Middendorf sold the painting to Edward Speelman who then sold it to property developer and entrepreneur Harold Samuel (Lord Samuel of Wych Cross). It was discovered to have been looted and finally restituted to J. H. Smidt van Gelder's daughter Charlotte Bischoff van Heemskerck in 2015.
How did the Nazi-looted painting get to Kurt Meissner? According to an article by Mick Brown in The Telegraph published in 2018,
"It was discovered that Galerie Meissner had sold the painting to Middendorf with a written authentication provided by a German art historian named Walther Bernt, who had described the Ochtervelt as an 'impeccable' work by the artist, and provided a detailed, if truncated, provenance, tracing it from the collection of one Comte de Morny in Paris in 1874, to its acquisition in 1927 by an Amsterdam dealer.
After the war, Bernt had presented himself to the Allies offering to help identify art that had been looted by the Nazis and that had been retrieved. 'What he didn't mention,' Anne Webber says, 'was that under the name Walther Berndt he had helped the Gestapo in Prague, advising them on the value of collections that had been seized by the Germans, and that he was familiar with those because before the war he had advised the Jewish owners on what to buy.' In Bernt's archives, held by Harvard University, researchers found a photograph of The Oyster Meal. Written on the back was a reference to Gallery Peiffer, in Düsseldorf....
the owners of the gallery had consulted Walther Bernt, and it was Bernt, no doubt knowing that the painting was looted property, who had arranged the transaction with Galerie Meissner in Zurich
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A Courbet at the Fitzwilliams Museum is currently under investigation. It also passed through Meissner.
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/05/10/courbet-work-was-probably-stolen-for-hitlers-deputy
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Meissner can be described as a name "in between".
That is, a name of a dealer that pops up between the moment of Nazi plunder and the installation in a respectable museum. What other artworks passed through Meissner? What is the state of their provenances? Are there gaps 1933-1945? Red flag? Uncertainty or anonymity words?
To find out, we invite art historians to give a close read to the following provenances. A few of the names that appear together with Meissner are highlighted.
Question for students of art history and provenance researchers. What is known about these names?
1. Meissner in UK Spoliation Reports
Search results for: Meissner
Friedrich Preller the Elder
Description: The stag hunt after Ruisdael
Reference: PD.9-1991
Questions in the operative period: Where between 1933-1945? From where and when acquired by Meissner?
Materials: Point of the brush, watercolour over graphite and touches of black chalk
Acquisition: Bought from the Biffen and Gaskell Funds, 1991
Dimensions: 318 x 403 mm
Provenance: Kurt Meissner; with Tan Bunzl & Rothschild, from whom bought
Institution: Fitzwilliam Museum
Drawn by Kobell, Franz
Description: Landscape with two trees in foreground; lawn with a large tree to either side and wood in distance Brush and brown ink and wash, with graphite outline around edge of sheet
Reference: 1996,0928.10
Questions in the operative period: Uncertain or incomplete 1933-45 provenance
Materials: paper
Acquisition: 1996
Dimensions: Height: 176 mm; Width: 212 mm
Provenance: Donated by Lachenmann, David; Previous owner/ex-collection Galerie Bruno Meissner
Institution: British Museum
Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder
Description: Flowers in a Glass Vase
Reference: NG6549
Questions in the operative period: {1} Whereabouts and provenance until post WWII? {2} Source for information about Switzerland? {3} Provenance between post 1945 and 1960's?
Materials: Oil on copper
Acquisition: Bequeathed by Mrs Sally Speelman and Mr Anthony Speelman in memory of Mr Edward Speelman, 1994
Dimensions: 26 x 20.5 cm
Provenance: Switzerland, possibly shortly after Second World war {1, 3}. acquired from a Canadian family near Genoa in the 1960's or from a private collection near Zollikon, Switzerland around 1970/1972 by Kurt Meissner (dealer), Zurich {2, 3},; Edward Speelman (dealer), London; bequeathed to the National Gallery by Edward Speelman (dealer) in 1994.
Institution: National Gallery
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