Adolphe Castle

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Salomon van Ruysdael , River View with the City of Weesp , oil on panel, 1650, from the former Adolphe Schloss collection (restituted)
Rembrandt van Rijn , Jew in a fur hat (1660), from the Adolphe Schloss collection (restituted)
Frans Hals: Portrait of the Pastor Adrianus Tegularius

Adolphe Schloss (born August 10, 1842 in Fürth ; † December 31, 1910 in Paris ) was a French foreign trade specialist and art collector who produced significant works of 17th century Dutch painting , including six works by Rembrandt van Rijn and major works by Pieter Brueghel , Frans Hals and Peter Paul Rubensin a collection comprising 333 pieces. The collection of the Jewish family was confiscated and looted at the beginning of 1943 on behalf of the German occupying forces. 262 pictures alone were included in Hitler's collection, the Führermuseum Linz . After the end of the Second World War, almost all of the pictures in the Schloss Collection were lost.

In the cemetery on Montmartre, the epitaph preserved the memory of Adolphe Schloss, his wife Lucie, née Haas, and his daughter Marguerite. The experienced, always correct foreign trade merchant was awarded the ribbon of the Legion of Honor. As a member of the committee for French trade fairs abroad, he took part in the organization of major international industrial and trade shows such as the world exhibitions in Paris in 1889 and 1900 and in 1904 in Saint-Louis. In the jury he proved himself as a specialist in fine brush, wicker and leather goods, as well as cabinet making.

Collection of Adolphe Schloss

The art collection was built up over decades by the Adolphe Schloss family. The castle, which was born in Bavaria , received French citizenship in 1871 and over the years has amassed a collection of 332 important works of German and Dutch painting from the 17th century. The Schloss family lived in the middle of their art collection at 38 avenue Henri - Martin in the 16th district of Paris.

After Schloss' death, the collection passed to his widow Lucie (1858–1938), then to the children Marguerite (1879–1959), Lucien, Henry and Juliette. During the Second World War, they brought the collection to the Chambon Castle near Tulle in central France out of concern about the bombing of Paris .

In April 1943, the collection was tracked down and confiscated by members of the German Gestapo , French police officers and employees of the so-called Jewish Commissariat of the Vichy government and taken to occupied Paris. This happened at the instigation of the Nazi art dealer Bruno Lohse . Since the confiscation happened to be known and received a lot of echo in the press, the Germans decided that the French state should be the first to receive 49 pictures from the Schloss Collection . This was to create the impression that the Vichy regime carried out the seizure. These pictures were given to the Louvre . 262 paintings were intended for Hitler's art museum in Linz; they had been selected by Bruno Lohse , the deputy head of the special staff fine arts of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), and the representative responsible for the Netherlands for the special order Linz Erhard Göpel . The works brought to Munich were appraised and accepted there by the head of the special order, Hermann Voss , who was responsible for procuring the art objects for the Führermuseum. The works for the Hitler Museum were kept in the Führerbau because the Linz Museum had not yet been built. When the Führerbau in Munich was looted at the end of the war, many pictures from the Schloss Collection also disappeared. Only 148 of the images have reappeared since then. Pictures from the Schloss Collection are still being discovered and restored today . Most recently, in 2001, the painting Jew in a Fur Hat by Rembrandt from the holdings of the National Gallery in Prague was returned to the heirs by the Czech Republic .

The Adam Williams case

The Adam Williams case , which caused a sensation in the art community and had far-reaching consequences, was spectacular. The American art dealer Adam Williams offered the painting by Frans Hals' Portrait of Pastor Adrianus Tegularius from the collection for sale at an art fair in France in 1990. The painting had previously changed hands four times and was sold at auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s , among others . The picture was confiscated at the fair on behalf of the universal heir of the Schloss family, Jean Demartini, who had been on the trail of the picture since 1967. Williams was arrested by French police for stolen goods , but acquitted by a Paris appellate court. A series of trials began that ended with a decision by the Supreme Court in Paris on June 4, 2001. Williams was sentenced to probation, payment of a fine and restitution of the painting to Jean Demartini. The court ruled that the dealer had violated his duty of care. He could not have denied his responsibility by claiming that he was unaware of the picture's predatory background.

See also

The case of the "Schloss Collection"

Catalogs

  • Soixante-dix tableaux de la collection de feu M. Adolphe Schloss, dont la vente aux enchères publiques aura lieu à Paris, Galerie Charpentier ... May 25, 1949 . Paris: R. Lebel, 1949
  • Collection de feu M. Adolphe Schloss (deuxième vente) tableaux anciens dont la vente publiques aura lieu à Paris, Galerie Charpentier ... 5 décembre 1951 ... . Paris: R. Lebel, 1951
  • Collection de ... M. Adolphe Castle. Tableaux anciens ... [Vente à Paris, Galerie Charpentier, le 7 décembre 1954.] Paris: R. Lebel, 1954
  • Marie Hamon-Jugnet: Castle Collection: oeuvres spoliées pendant la deuxième guerre mondiale non restituées, 1943-1998 . France. Ministère des affaires étrangères, Directorate des Archives et de la Documentation. Paris 1998

literature

  • Hector Feliciano: The Lost Museum. About art theft by the Nazis. Translated from English by Chris Hirte. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-351-02475-4 .
  • Günther Haase: Art theft and art protection . Books on Demand Norderstedt, 2008. (available at google-books)
  • Anja Heuss : art and cultural property theft. A comparative study on the occupation policy of the National Socialists in France and the Soviet Union. Winter, Heidelberg 2000, ISBN 3-8253-0994-0 .
  • Sabine Rudolph: Restitution of works of art from Jewish property . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 2007 ISBN 978-3-89949-436-5 , p. 54
  • Consolidated Interrogation Report no. 4, 1945, pp 29 to 34. A description of the interrogation reports of the OSS is here to find.
  • Gunnar Schnabel, Monika Tatzkow : Nazi Looted Art. Handbook Art Restitution Worldwide . Proprietas-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-019368-2 .
  • Stephan Klingen: Booty remains booty , in: Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 15, 2017, p. 21

Movies

  • Marc van Dessel: Paris - Stolen by the Nazis. The history of the Schloss Collection . Documentary in co-production with ARTE (55 min., First broadcast on ARTE in April 1999). Paris: Bagheera / La Cinquième / RTBF 1998 ( The Jew with a Fur Cap / Le Juif au bonnet de fourrure )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stephane Carrere, Express - Portrait of Adolphe Schloss, La Justice, Paris October 24, 1908, p. 1  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / gallicalabs.bnf.fr  
  2. ↑ Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme
  3. ↑ https://photos.geni.com/p13/cd/e0/83/25/5344483c052f3464/muq78mew_large.jpg
  4. ↑ Marie Hamon Jugnet: Collection Castle: oeuvres spoliées pendant la deuxième guerre mondiale non restituées, 1943-1998 . France. Ministère des affaires étrangères, Directorate des Archives et de la Documentation. Paris 1998, p. 7
  5. ↑ When the picture came into the country, the authorities struck ( memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Art - Das Kunstmagazin , August 1998 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.art-magazin.de
  6. ^ Gunnar Schnabel, Monika Tatzkow : Nazi Looted Art. Handbook of Art Restitution Worldwide . Proprietas-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-019368-2 . P. 358.
  7. ^ Michael Anton: Civil Law - Good Faith in the International Art Trade. De Gruyter, Berlin 2010, ISBN 3-89949-725-2 , p. 473ff.
personal data
SURNAME Castle, Adolphe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French art collector
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1842
PLACE OF BIRTH Fuerth
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1910
Place of death Paris