Wilhelm Friedrich Arntz

Wilhelm Friedrich Arntz (* 1903 ; † 1985 ) was a German lawyer , writer , publisher and bookseller , editor and expert on the art of the 20th century.

Life

He studied law in Munich, Berlin and Frankfurt am Main. During his studies he joined the Catholic student association Askania (today Askania-Burgundia ) in Berlin and was one of the re-founders of the Catholic student association Semnonia in the winter semester 1924/25. After completing his studies, Arntz became an assistant to the international lawyer Otto Max Köbner , who was married to a niece of Max Liebermann . Through her he got his first contact with art.

Arntz began his professional career as a political editor for the Frankfurter General-Anzeiger . After the seizure of power of the Nazis in 1933, he lost his job and was in Berlin from 1937 Gestapo arrested. He then worked as a foreign correspondent for the HUCK Association, a German newspaper group in London in the 1930s. From 1939 to 1944 he worked as a freelance writer. It was around this time that he began collecting expressionist art. After being a prisoner of war in 1945, Arntz returned to his family in Stuttgart, with whom he had arranged to meet with the painter Willi Baumeister after the Second World War ; Arntz had been friends with him since 1932. After his return, Arntz was appointed head of the Stuttgart cultural department. In 1947 he founded the auction house Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett together with Roman Norbert Ketterer . Here he worked from 1955 to 1956 as a consultant and expert on 20th century art. Then he worked as a consultant for the largest West German auction house Lempertz in Cologne until 1978 , where he built up the successful modern art department.

Arntz was also in demand as an expert on forgery in various legal proceedings, for example in the case of Lothar Malskat 1954–1955 in Lübeck or in the case of the civil lawsuit for the forgery of a work by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in Munich in 1970. As a lawyer, he worked in property law cases and the return of works of art confiscated by the National Socialists, but also for insurance, tax matters, copyright and protection of cultural heritage. At the auction of numerous paintings in the Düsseldorf House of Crafts , announced by Günther Schenk as the "largest auction event on the German art market" in 1965 , Arntz discovered numerous incorrect attributions.

Arntz was one of the first collectors of German Expressionism. The art collector acquired publications on 20th century art and produced a wealth of archival material, including newspaper clippings, correspondence from artists, art historians and dealers, and invitations to exhibition openings. During the Second World War, a significant part of his library and archive was lost, but after 1945 he succeeded in rebuilding most of his collection. He expanded the collection to include copies or transcripts of official declarations, reports and letters from high-ranking National Socialists and post-war authorities to persecute representatives of " degenerate art ". He made the “Art Archive Arntz” in his private house in Haag in Upper Bavaria available to the public with certain restrictions and allowed students and colleagues to conduct research in his house. His estate “Wilhelm Arntz papers, 1898–1986” with correspondence and 50,000 books is in the collection of the Getty Center in Los Angeles .

Publications

• Foreign policy studies - Festgabe for Otto Köbner. Abroad and Heimat-Aktiengesellschaft, Stuttgart 1930. 408 pp.
• Malta. 5th - 9th thousand series "Weltgeschehen" Ed .: Gerhard Herrmann. Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Leipzig 1941. 114 pp.
• Twenty profiles. Sharp cut. The directors of the Second World War. With 48 illustrations. Schützen-Verlag, Berlin 1942. 359 pp.
• Der Struwwelpeter and other original manuscripts by Struwwelpeter-Hoffmann. With 18 illustrations. Supplement to the catalog of the 19th art auction. Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, Stuttgart 1954. 40 pp.
• Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Watercolors, drawings, graphics. Stuttgart, Theodor Körner Verlag, Stuttgart 1954. 28 pp.
• Stuttgart Art Cabinet. 21st art auction. Art literature, works of art from the 18th to 20th centuries, Chinese bronzes. Stuttgart, Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, 1955. 40 pp.
• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Lithographs 1956. Theodor Körner Verlag, Stuttgart 1956. 28 pp.
• Art of the XX. Century. Paintings - plastic - watercolors - hand drawings - graphics. Kunsthaus Math. Lempertz (Ed.), Stuttgart, Ernst Klett Verlag, 1960. 88 pp.
• The Föhrenhaus - The Building - Schondorfer Reports - 8th year / November 1961. Presse-Druck- und Verlags-GmbH 1961. 78 pp.
• 20th century art. Kunsthaus Math. Lempertz, Cologne 1961
• Iconoclasm over Germany. III: The fate of the pictures. 1962
• 20th century art. Kunsthaus Math. Lempertz, Cologne 1964
• Graphics u. Drawings. March 1 - April 17, 1965, exhibition catalog. With Willi Baumeister. Stuttgart Königsbau, Galerie Valentien, 1965. 28 pp.
• 20th century art. Kunsthaus Math. Lempertz, Cologne 1971
• 20th century art. Kunsthaus Math. Lempertz, Cologne 1972
• 20th century art. Kunsthaus Math. Lempertz, Cologne 1973
• Directory of the catalogs of works on 20th century art that have been published since 1945. Arntz Bulletin Documentation of the Art of the 20th Century Special Volume. Verlag Gertrud Arntz-Winter, Haag, around 1975. 122 pp.
• Nutrizym series antiques. A little guide for the trip. Series 2. Print. Miesbach, Bergemann + Mayr publishing house, 1975. 71 pp.
• Kindler's painting. Lexicon in the dtv subject dictionary of world painting, painting transparency, 12 works of Hercules . With Gerd Tolzien. Munich, Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1976. ISBN 3-42305-956-7 , Volume 13, 310 pp.
• Arp, Hans Jean. The graphic work 1912-1966. L'oeuvre grave - The graphic work. Verlag Gertrud Arntz-Winter, Haag 1980. 338 pp.
• Cuno Amiet, the graphic work 1939 - 1966. Verlag Gertrud Arntz-Winter, Haag 1982
• René Auberjonois, Bibliography of Illustrated Works. Publisher Gertrud Arntz-Winter, Haag 1982.
• Walter Wörn 1901-1963. Düsseldorf, Galerie Vömel 1992. 20 pp.
• Catalog of the sculptures 1947-1973. With Wolfgang Braunfels and Joachim Berthold
• Catalogs of works on 20th century art. Directory of the catalogs published since 1945 , Verlag Gertrud Arntz-Winter, Haag, 122 pp.

rating

In his book on Nazi looted art, The Pictures Are Among Us. The author Stefan Koldehoff Wilhelm Friedrich Arntz described the business with Nazi looted art as a “construction helper at Ketterer and Lempertz” and together with Wilhelm Rüdiger and Roman Norbert Ketterer as “questionable continuities”.

Robert Schröpfer from the taz added: "Of course it is scandalous that [...] the propagandists Wilhelm Rüdiger and Friedrich Wilhelm Arntz signed on to an important auction house like Roman Norbert Ketterer's Stuttgart art gallery."

Christina Tilmann from Tagesspiegel added: “Roman Norbert Ketterer, who began to buy up art in 1943 and, after the war, sought advice from the NS art historians Wilhelm Rüdiger and Wilhelm Friedrich Arntz when building his Stuttgart art cabinet - piquantly, especially on expressionist art, which was ostracized by the National Socialists. "

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Willi Baumeister Foundation: Contemporaries of Willi Baumeister: collectors, sponsors, friends
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Getty Center : Wilhelm Friedrich Arntz (1903-1985), Biographical / Historical Note , in English
3. ↑ ^{a b} Schenk auction. So-called Kokoschka. In: Der Spiegel , issue 45/1965 of November 3, 1965
4. ↑ Meike Hoffmann (Ed.): A dealer of "degenerate" art: Bernhard A. Böhmer and his estate. Volume 3 of the publications of the research center “Degenerate Art”. Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 2010. ISBN 3-05006-221-5 , 628 pp., Here p. 117
5. ^ Getty Center: Wilhelm Arntz papers, 1898-1986 , in English
6. ↑ Is that real? Fakes have appeared in German galleries and art museums. Tobias Timm researched the origin of the works. The trail of the fraud leads to the address of a respected Berlin art dealer. In: DIE ZEIT No. 30 . July 20, 2017, p. 13 ff . ( zeit.de ).
7. ↑ Stefan Koldehoff : The pictures are among us. The deal with Nazi looted art ( Memento of the original from January 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Eichborn Verlag, Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 3-82185-844-3 . 288 p., Here p. 215
8. ↑ Robert Cupp: Tendered indignation. In: taz of October 21, 2009
9. ↑ Christina Tilmann: Book on Nazi looted art. A thriller without a happy ending. In: Der Tagesspiegel from August 10, 2009