The Picasso Museum currently is showing 'L'Art Dégéneré', an exhibition about art seized from German museums by the Nazi government which sought to ban so-called "degenerate" art and persecute artists it didn't like.
As so often with "degenerate art" the focus is on paintings lost by German museums to the predations of their own government.
However, many of the dealers and collectors of the artists in question were German Jews, and for this reason they were targeted for persecution and plunder very early in the Nazi regime, when life was still pretty normal outside of Germany. Their assets were plundered and they were eventually murdered if they did not manage to escape. Later, after Nazi Germany attacked Poland in 1939 and France, Belgium and the Netherlands in 1940, the ERR and other Nazilooting organisations seized artworks from Jews in these countries, before murdering them.
This post looks at some of the Jewish collectors of artworks by Marc Chagall who were plundered by the Nazis. The transfer of artworks by so-called "degenerate" artist Marc Chagall to museums and collectors around the world (and notably in the USA) cannot be told without the stories of these looted Jewish collectors.
The German Lost Art Foundation publishes some search requests for art seized or sold under duress during the Nazi era.
In this post, we feature the families that are searching for paintings by Chagall.
These families are also searching for artworks by many other artists as well. The names of any of these individuals or their families in a provenance is an obvious red flag that requires detailed verification.
"Martha and Walter Blank were interested in modern art and were politically active in the Weimar Republic. They were part of the Cologne Progressive art scene and had close ties to the Kölnischer Kunstverein and many artists in the Rhineland. The couple built up an art collection that included works by Max Pechstein, Marc Chagall, Frans Masereel, Maurice de Vlaminck, Karl Hofer and Ernst Barlach. On April 20, 1936, Walter Blank fled to Antwerp together with his sons Hans Walter and Peter Max, having learned immediately beforehand of his planned arrest by the Gestapo. His wife had already died in 1935. He left his house, the mobile inventory and the art collection behind. Dr. Blank went on to Spain via Belgium, where he joined the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. He died in Matarò near Barcelona on May 18, 1938.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)" - Proveana
Blumstein (Familie)
Cender, David und Rita ("Déporté à Auschwitz, David Cender a survécu, tandis que sa femme et sa fille ont été assassinées." - Restitution du tableau de Marc Chagall, Le Père, aux ayants-droit de David Cender)
Einhorn (Ajnchorn), Pinkus
Pinkus and Sara Einhorn (Ajnchorn), Aleja Wolnosci 3/5, Czestochowa (Pl); 1939 along with six other paintings confiscated by German policemen (soldiers?) ("Oberleutnant Überscheer"); missing since that time - German Lost Art Foundation Search Request for work by the artist Zygmunt Menkes
Fels, Florent
Fuld, Harry jun.
"À l’arrivée au pouvoir des Nazis, le groupe Fuld est « aryanisé » et Harry Fuld Junior perd ainsi ses parts dans l'entreprise familiale. Il décide d’émigrer en Angleterre en 1937 mais ne parvient pas à emporter ses œuvres d’art qu’il fait mettre en caisse pour qu’elles soient envoyées à Londres. Elles sont confisquées et vendues aux enchères en janvier 1943." - Trois œuvres spoliées pendant la période nazie restituées
Goldschmidt, Hedwig und Jacob
Grünbaum, Franz Friedrich (Fritz)
"Fritz Grünbaum was a well-known cabaret performer, librettist, writer, film actor, and director in interwar Vienna, known for his clever and ironic humor. His father was an art dealer in the city of Brno, Moravia, in the Habsburg Empire. He was a prominent anti-Nazi in the 1930s. After the German invasion of Austria on 12 March 1938 (the “Anschluss”), Fritz Grünbaum attempted to flee the Restitutions: Dr. Curt and Elsa Glaser authorities after 1940. According to Wachenheim, his furniture and art objects disappeared when the house was abandoned by the occupying forces in 1944. While in exile in the US, Otto Wachenheim compiled a list of his art collection from memory, including a description of a “still life with book” by Oskar Moll. This description dated 17 May 1951 was entered as a search request in the Lost Art database (Lost Art ID 414984) in 2009; no illustration has survived". - Görlitz Silesian Museum researches the provenance of a painting by Oskar Moll
as well as drawings by Chagall
Glaser, Prof. Dr. Curt
"The art historian and director of Berlin’s Kunstbibliothek (State Art Library) Dr Curt Glaser (1879–1943) [FIG. 1, 2] and his wife Elsa (née Kolker, 1878–1932) [FIG. 3] were central figures in the Berlin art world of the 1910s and 1920s, and notable art collectors of Jewish origin...The Nazi Party’s seizure of power in 1933 put an abrupt end to Curt’s career. After his dismissal in early April, Glaser saw no option but to put most of his possessions up for auction at the Internationale Kunst-und Auktionshaus on 9 May 1933 [FIG. 14] and at the Max Perl auction house on 18–19 May 1933, [FIG. 15, 16] both located in Berlin. At the latter sale a large number of works on paper were acquired for knock-down prices by the Kupferstichkabinett (Department of Prints and Drawings) of the Öffentlichen Kunstsammlungen Basel." - Christie's Restitutions: Dr. Curt and Elsa Glaser
Grünbaum, Franz Friedrich (Fritz)
Neményi, Bertalan
"The Budapest lawyer Dr. Bertalan Neményi (1892-1947) was one of the notable figures of Hungarian art collection in the interwar period. He was mainly drawn to contemporary Hungarian artists, so he had considerable numbers of works by József Rippl-Rónai, Lajos Gulácsy and Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka. The reconstruction of his collection is very difficult as the bulk disappeared at the end of WWII" - Addendum to the art collection of Bertalan Neményi
In France, which was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940, one can consult the "Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg: Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume"
This database lists 19 entrees of artworks by Chagall that were looted from French and Dutch Jews by the ERR Nazi looting organisation.
The previous owners include:
Otto Wachenheim — Amsterdam, The Netherlands
[Mme. Renée] Léonce Bernheim — Brissac, France
Jules et Madeleine Lindauer — Paris, France
Roger Bernheim — Paris, France
Justin K. Thannhauser — Paris, France
Jakob Goldschmidt — Paris, France
Max Gottschalk — Ixelles-Bruxelles, Belgique
Card ID
Title
Artist
Description
Bern. 14 Inv. Nr. alte Slg. IV 6 Feldblumenstrauss in einer weissen Milchkanne vor geöffnetem Fenster. Chagall Aquarell [gerahmt], 62.5 x 47.5 cm, Signatur: rechts unten NWD Lachender Kopf Chagall Radierung, 24 x 29.5 cm NWD Russische Strasse Chagall Radierung, 28.5 x 22 cm NWD Zwei Männer vor Tür Chagall Radierung, 28.5 x 22 cm Vase de fleurs Chagall Toile de 30 Fables de la Fontaine Chagall 4 aquarelles Nature morte Chagall Peinture à l'huile Ile de Bréhat Chagall Tableau, 27 x 35 cm Roßstein 1 Schreibender Chagall Kreidezeichn., 27 x 36 cm, unter Glas gerahmt La vache et son veau Chagall Tableau ultra-moderne, tonalité verte Juif à la barbe Chagall Toile Schlafende Frau Chagall Oel auf Karton, ca. 40 x 50 cm L. Bern 4 Winterliche Landschaft Chagall Öl auf Lwd., 67 x 136 cm MA-B 811 Rotbärtiger Bauer mit Rucksack Chagall Aquarellierte Radierung, 11.5 x 9.5 cm MA-B 889a Frau mit Kopf und Umschlagtuch Chagall Öl auf Lwd., 48.7 x 36 cm MA-B 889b Mann im Kaftan Chagall Öl auf Lwd., 50 x 39 cm MA-B 793 Blick in ein Dorf Chagall Aquarell und Tempera, 48.5 x 40.5 cm MA-B 562 Blick von einem Fenster Chagall Öl auf Lwd., 29 x 37 cm MA-B 1285 Strassenbild und Blumentopf Chagall Ölbild, 73 x 100 cm
Otto Wachenheim — Amsterdam, The Netherlands
[Mme. Renée] Léonce Bernheim — Brissac, France
Jules et Madeleine Lindauer — Paris, France
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