Heinemann and Mondschein (Frederick Mont) in provenances of artworks in American museums

The El Greco looted in 1944 by the Nazi Gestapo from Julius Priester passed through Rudolf J. Heinemann, (1901 – February 7, 1975) and the business he owned, Pinakos, and Frederick Mont (aka Fritz Mondschein) and the gallery he owned, Galerie Sanct Lukas, before being identified. The provenance of the looted artwork was falsified, and it took more than seventy years to find it, claim it and obtain restitution (in 2015). 

The obvious question for museums to ask themselves is: which artworks in our collections passed through these individuals or their businesses and are there any provenance gaps or discrepancies that require further verification. 

 The number of questions marks "?" (49) and "probably" (41) and "possibly" (30) and "might have" or "may have" (12) suggests the presence of guesswork and speculation.

Below are a few of the artworks known to have passed through Heinemann or Mont. 

SEVEN DATASETS: Frederick Mont or Galerie Sanct Lucas in the Provenance of Artworks

Frederick Mont (1894-1994) was an art dealer who sold artworks to dozens of major art museums and art collectors.

Mont, originally named Fritz Mondschein, owned the Sanct Lucas Gallery. 

Mont is known to have worked with the Austrian Nazi SS art dealer and looter Bernhard Witke and was involved in selling at least two artworks looted from the Jewish collector Julius Priester, including the El Greco, Portrait of a Gentleman.

Mont also sold a forgery to Sherman Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art as a Grunewald, but, according to the NYT, pigment tests conducted by the museum's conservator, Ross Merrill,  proved conclusively that the painting was a 20th‐century forgery.

The provenances of those artworks were falsified, with fake owners and entirely fake histories inserted into the texts. 

Art historians, provenance researchers and scholars of the Holocaust should keep this context in mind when evaluating the ownership histories that have been published for artworks that passed through Mont's hands.

Mont was not an honest man. Everything Frederick Mont or his Galerie Sanct Lucas claimed about an artwork should be considered questionable unless it is proven to be true.

DATASETS

Frederick Mont and Galerie Sanct Lucas in GLAMHACK2020 provenances from several museums, analysed for uncertainty, anonymity and unreliability (94 records)

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Frederick Mont and Galerie Sanct Lucas in Getty Provenance Index Public Collections (showing only the lines that mention Mont/Lucas)

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Frederick Mont Sanct Lucas in Provenance Texts of Artworks at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 25 AUG 2020  

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NEPIP NGA Frederick Mont and Sanct Lucas in Provenance Texts of Artworks listed on the Nazi Era Provenance Internet Portal by the NGA

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RKD: Frederick Mont mentioned in artworks at the RKD

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Kress Collection: Frederick Mont and Galerie Sanct Lucas K-codes and provenance (in Color)

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Frederick Mont at Sotheby's and Christie's- PUBLIC

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Linked Data References for Frederick Mont or Galerie Sanct Lucas

Wikidata: Q33315010 

Viaf: 139936107  

Union List of Artist Names ID: 500437571 

WorldCat Identities ID: lccn-no2007138555

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RKDartists ID: 431910

Nazi looted art: deception by provenance authors

The scale of deceptive practices by art market professionals concerning Holocaust-related looted art is under-appreciated.

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. 

ARCHIVED LINK

Art Dealers in Provenance: Frederick Mont at the Toledo Museum of Art and LACMA

Art dealers like Frederick Mont played an important role in bringing art to American museums. 

In previous posts we looked at the biography of Frederick Mont, also known as Frederick Mondschein (1894-1994), and mentions of his name in the provenances of artworks that are now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. 

In this post, we look at the provenances of some of the artworks that Mont dealt with that are now in the art collections of the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio and LACMA in Los Angeles.

Several of these provenances exhibit gaps in the years 1933-1945.

Toledo Museum of Art

View of the Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice

Accession Number: 1951.404

Artist: CANALETTO (GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL) (1697-1768)

Title: The Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice

Date of: late 1730s
Medium/Technique: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 18 1/2 x 24 7/8 in. (47.1 x 63.3 cm.)
Inscription: Two labels on reverse: 1) Anton Canale/M-zu Venedig/a 1740
2) No. 191/Tablau Apertenant au Prince Joseph/Wenceslau de (Liechten)
Nationality: Italian
about Prince Josef Wenzel
1740 Liechtenstein, Vienna
to about Princes Liechtenstein, Vienna
1951

Dealer: Frederick Mont, New York

1951 Toledo Museum of Art

=====================

Accession Number: 1952.24

Artist: BEYEREN, ABRAHAM VAN (1620/21 - 1690)

Title: Still Life with a Wine Ewer

Date of: after 1655
Medium/Technique: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 31 1/4 x 25 in. (79.3 x 63.5 cm.)
Inscription: Signed lower right (on table edge): AB (in monogram)
Nationality: Dutch
M. Meisgeier, Vienna

(Bought by dealer: Frederick Mont, New York)

1952 Toledo Museum of Art
NOT ON VIEW
http://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/55110/still-life-with-a-wine-ewer?ctx=10fcc856-b17d-4e51-9de1-6ef33fb0b074&idx=0


=============================
Accession Number: 1952.25

Artist: HEEM, JAN DAVIDSZ. DE (1606-1684)

Title: Still Life with a Lobster

Date of: late 1640s
Medium/Technique: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 25 x 33 1/4 in. (63.5 x 84.5 cm.)
Inscription: Signed lower left (on table edge): JD.De Heem f.
Nationality: Dutch

Gsell, Vienna
1926 Max Strauss, Vienna
(Glückselig, Wawra,
Vienna, Mar. 1926, no. 18)

Dealer: Mont, New York

1952 Toledo Museum of Art
Toledo Museum of Art
Provenance Report, page 20
NOT ON VIEW
http://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/55212/still-life-with-a-lobster?ctx=c04ca191-7545-4533-8943-596038058fb6&idx=0
==========================

Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen Painting a Portrait of His Wife -Toledo

Accession Number: 1960.7

Artist: JACOBSZ, DIRCK (ABOUT 1497 - 1567)

Title: Jacob Cornelisz Painting a Portrait of His Wife

Date of: about 1550
Medium/Technique: Oil on wood panel
Dimensions: 24 7/16 x 19 7/16 in. (62.1 x 49.4 cm.)
Inscription: Inscribed upper right: A—.
Nationality: Dutch
Jacob van Formerly attribted to Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen (about 1472-1533), the father of Dirck
Jacobsz. 1859 Earl of Northwick, Painting described Thirlestaine House, as “Quintin Cheltenham Matsys, The Artist (sold, H. Phillips, Painting his July 1859, no. 138) Mother’s Portrait” — Burton Fredericksen letter 9 1859 Duke of Newcastle, Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire Earl of Lincoln, Clumber Park (Christie’s, London, June 4, 1937,
lot 70, repr.) Dealer: Katz, Arnhem (sold to Geldner) Geldner, Basel
Bought by dealer: Schultess, Basel

Bought by dealer: Frederick Mont, New York

1960 Toledo Museum of Art
Toledo Museum of Art
Provenance Report, page 35
http://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/55302/jacob-cornelisz-van-oostsanen-painting-a-portrait-of-his-wi?ctx=186d285f-46b1-456f-a7ac-3ea6962e4f73&idx=0
====================

Accession Number: 1965.165

Artist: LONGHI, ALESSANDRO (1733 - 1813)

Title: Giacomo Casanova

Date of: about 1775
Medium/Technique: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 40 1/4 x 33 1/2 in. (102 x 90 cm.)
Inscription:
Nationality: Italian
Start Date Ending Date Owner/Location/Sales Alternate SpellingNotes/Questions
Previous
attribution:
Pietro
Amici collection, Milan
(Sale dell’Impresa,
Milan, Mar. 14, 1889, lot 12,
as Pietro Crespi collection, Milan

1964? Purchased in Rome by dealer: FrederickMont, New York

1965 Toledo Museum of Art
NOT ON VIEW
http://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/55263/giacomo-casanova?ctx=aba2cb59-2530-40f5-a9b1-16b6265567d0&idx=0


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LACMA

note: The source of provenance text for artworks at LACMA is the Getty Provenance Index or RKD where LACMA does not publish provenance online.

AMBERGER, CHRISTOPH

Portrait of Johann Jakob Fugger(?)

Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
M.68.33
wood

in ca. 1912
Trautmannsdorf, Graf. Schloss Friedau, Österreich

in ca. 1927
Isbary, Gräfin. Wien, Österreich (from Trautmannsdorf)

- ca. 1968
Windischgrätz, Prinszessin. Wien, Österreich (by inheritance from her mother, Gräfin Isbary)

ca. 1968 - 1968 Mont, (Frederick), Inc.. New York, NY, USA (dealer; from Windischgrätz)

1968 -
Los Angeles, CA, USA. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (purchased from Mont)"
"
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BOSCOLI, ANDREA

The Triumph of Mordecai (?)

Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
48.10 [deaccessioned]
canvas

- 1948 Mont, (Frederick), Inc., and Newhouse Galleries. New York, NY, USA (dealer)Newhouse Galleries, and Mont, (Frederick), Inc.. New York, NY, USA

1948 - 1992
Los Angeles, CA, USA. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (gift of Newhouse Galleries and Dr. Frederick Mont)"
"
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DIEPENBEECK, ABRAHAM JANSZ. VAN

The Deposition

Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
68.1
wood

19th c.
France. Anonymous collection

1967/03/07 (0006)
N sale (Palais Galliera) Paris
- 1967
N, Mr. and Mrs.. Paris, France

Conde Nast. New York, NY, USA? (corporate collection?)
[Conde Nast is parent company of Glamour Magazine, etc.]

- 1968 Mont, (Frederick), Inc.. New York, NY, USA (dealer)

1968 -
Los Angeles, CA, USA. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (from Mont)"
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"

LASTMAN, PIETER PIETERSZ.

Hagar and the Angel

Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
M.85.117
wood

Paris, France. Anonymous collection

Didier-Aaron. Paris, France

- 1976 Mont, Frederick. New York, NY, USA

- 1985
Solomon, Bernard, Mr. and Mrs. (on loan to Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

1985 -
Los Angeles, CA, USA. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (from Solomon sale; purchased with funds provided by Ahmanson Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Steward Resnick, Anna Bing Arnold, Dr. Armand Hammer, and Edward Carter in honor of Kenneth Donahue)

(note: image from LACMA)


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MORAZZONE (PIER FRANCESCO MAZZUCCHELLI)

Saint Francis' Vision of the Musical Angel

Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
M.73.6
canvas

Italia. Private collection

Mont, (Frederick), Inc.. New York, NY, USA

- 1973
Los Angeles, CA, USA. The Ahmanson Foundation (from Mont)

1973 -
Los Angeles, CA, USA. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (gift of Ahmanson Foundation)"
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RUBENS, PETER PAUL

The Holy Family with the Dove

Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
53.27
wood

bef. 1918 - ca. 1928
Kospoth, Count. Schloss Schön-Briese, Silesia, Polska

in 1930
Nebehay, Gustav. Berlin, Deutschland

1939/05/26 (0243)
Oberlaender sale (Parke-Bernet) New York
- 1939
Oberlaender, Gustav

1939 - still in 1947 Mont, (Frederick), Inc.. New York, NY, USA (bought at Oberlaender sale)

aft. 1947 - 1953
Sanborn, Charles Frye, Dr.. Los Angeles, CA, USA (from Mont)

1953 -
Los Angeles, CA, USA. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (purchased from Dr. Sanborn)

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retrieved ULAN Jan 27 2020 http://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500437571

For more on artworks handled by Frederick Mont and what it means to find his name in the provenance of an artwork, see:

• Galerie Sanct Lucas   and  Mont, Frederick   at the Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America

• Fritz Mont, Frederick Mondschein and Galerie Sanct Lucas  

• Mondschein, Adolf Fritz and Mont, Frederick at the RKD

Born in Vienna in 1894 as Fritz Adolf Mondschein, the art dealer owned and directed the Galerie Sanct Lucas. He was closely connected to the dealer Victor Spark (1898-1991) and the Newhouse Galleries. He emigrated to the United States in the 1930s.

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Date Published: January 27, 2020
Published by: Open Art Data
Author: OAD
url/permalink:  https://www.openartdata.org/2020/01/art-dealer--provenance-frederick-Mont-Mondschein.html