Ismar Littmann Collection

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ismar Littmann (1910)

The art collection of the Jewish lawyer Ismar Littmann (1878-1934), who lived in Breslau , comprised 347 paintings and watercolors and 5,814 graphics before his death. Contemporary artists such as Lovis Corinth , Max Pechstein , Erich Heckel , Max Liebermann , Käthe Kollwitz , Lucien Adrion and Otto Mueller were represented .

Collector

Ismar Littmann was a patron of the cultural life in Wroclaw, he supported young artists, was involved in the founding of the local Jewish Museum and, as a member of the board of the “Society of Friends of Art”, was involved in several exhibitions of modern art . After the takeover of the Nazis , the exercise of his profession, he was after, adopted on 7 April 1933 law on the admission to the legal profession prohibited. Socially and politically marginalized and economically in great distress, he committed 1934 suicide .

Sale and Seizure

Ismar Littmann's widow Käthe Littmann gave 156 works to the Berlin auction house Max Perl , which was still run by Jews, to secure her livelihood , and the banks in Breslau submitted a further 44 paintings to the same auction. Two days before the auction, however, 64 works, including 18 from the Littmann collection, were confiscated by the Gestapo because of "typical cultural Bolshevik depiction of a pornographic character" . The remaining 182 works were auctioned on February 26 and 27, 1935, but most of them were not sold. Their whereabouts are largely unknown.

The 64 confiscated pictures were passed on to the Nationalgalerie Berlin and were to be checked, partly kept for documentation of the so-called " degenerate art " and the rest removed. The then director Eberhard Hanfstaengl selected four paintings, all from the Littmann Collection, and 14 watercolors for safe keeping; the remaining works were burned on March 20, 1936 in the heating system of the Kronprinzenpalais . During a search of the Nationalgalerie's holdings in 1937, the four paintings from the Littmann collection for the exhibition “Degenerate Art” were confiscated and shown in Munich. After the exhibition, some of the pictures were sold.

restitution

Ismar Littmann's heirs have been conducting proceedings for reparations , restitution and restitution of the art collection since the 1960s . In 1961 there was a partial settlement in which the confiscation of six paintings was recognized and compensation of 32,000 DM was paid. A second settlement was concluded in 1965, after which a compensation payment of DM 12,000 was made due to the confiscation of 117 works of art. In the late 1990s the inventories of the collection Littmann found since the collection is about the whereabouts of research .

Since 1999, on the basis of the Washington Declaration, six paintings and one drawing have been restituted to Littmann's heirs. The requested return of the painting box tree garden by Emil Nolde opposite the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg was rejected. The heirs were able to identify a further seven works, which makes it clear that only 15 of the more than 6,000 works were found.

Individual works

The four paintings that were shown in the exhibition "Degenerate Art" have the following provenance stories:

Otto Mueller: Boy in front of two standing and one sitting girl
  • Otto Mueller: Boy in front of two standing and one seated girl , oil on canvas, 1918/1919
In 1935 the painting was confiscated from the Perl auction house and then stored in the Kronprinzen-Palais in Berlin. In 1937 it was shown in the “Degenerate Art” exhibition. The Güstrow art dealer Bernhard H. Boehmer bought it in 1940 from the inventory that had been declared usable. After a gap of 39 years in its provenance, it was sold to the publisher Henri Nannen for 260,000 DM in 1979 via the Achim Moeller Gallery, London, later found in the Henri and Eske Nannen Foundation and exhibited in the Kunsthalle Emden .
Having become aware of the Littmann case through press reports, the Kunsthalle examined the provenance of the painting in 1998. After confirming that the picture comes from the Littmann Collection, the Board of Trustees recommended restitution. The Friends of the Museum organized the repurchase of the work of art from the heirs for 1.2 million DM.
Otto Mueller: Two female half-nudes
This painting, too, was confiscated from the Perl auction house in 1935, stored in the Kronprinzen-Palais in Berlin, and picked out in 1937 for the “Degenerate Art” exhibition. In 1939 the art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt bought the work for US $ 150 and sold it on to the collector Josef Haubrich . The picture was donated to the city of Cologne through him in 1946 . There it was exhibited in the Museum Ludwig.
At the request of the heirs, the painting was restituted in 1999 in accordance with the Washington Declaration.
  • Karl Hofer , Seated Female Nude on a Blue Cushion , oil on canvas, 1927
The painting was confiscated from the Perl auction house in 1935, stored in the Kronprinzen-Palais in Berlin, and shown in the 1937 exhibition “Degenerate Art”. The provenance history of this work is not publicly known; according to the coordination office in Magdeburg, it was restituted to the heirs in 2002.
  • The fourth painting from the Littman Collection that was shown in the “Degenerate Art” exhibition was a nude by Franz Radziwill . Nothing is known about its whereabouts.


Other works from the Littmann Collection that were restituted:

The picture was auctioned in 1935 by the Perl auction house in Berlin. In an unexplained way, it came into the possession of the judge and active resistance fighter against National Socialism, Ernst Strassmann .
The Ernst Strassmann Foundation , which did not know its origin, put the painting in an auction at the Villa Grisebach in Berlin in November 2002 . Upon publication, the work was identified by the Art Loss Register as part of the former Littman Collection. After the facts had been announced, the foundation took it out of the auction and returned it to the heirs.
Alexander Kanoldt: Olevano
  • Alexander Kanoldt: Olevano , oil on canvas, 1927
The painting was consigned to the Perl auction house in 1935, and in 1951 it was added to the collection of the National Gallery in Berlin.
In February 2001 it was returned to the heirs according to the Washington Declaration.
  • Lovis Corinth : Portrait of Charlotte Corinth , oil on canvas, 1915
The painting came from the Perl auction house to the Berlin National Gallery after 1935 and was sold from there in 1940. It later came into the possession of the Hamburgische Landesbank , which wanted to sell it in an auction in November 2000. It was identified as looted art and returned to Littmann's heirs.
  • Otto Mueller: Nude leaning against a tree , drawing
This drawing was identified as part of the Littmann Collection and restituted to the heirs by the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin in 2000.

Paintings found but not restituted:

  • Emil Nolde , Boxwood Garden , oil on canvas, 1909
At the Max Perl auction in 1935, this painting was sold to Karl Arnold, also a Jew, for 350 RM. He died in October 1935, his family emigrated and were able to take the picture with them. It was auctioned off in 1956 by the Ketterer auction house in Stuttgart, the Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg bought it for DM 3,600. It is still there today.
In April 2000, the city of Duisburg refused to return it on the grounds that one Jewish fate could not be played off against another. The museum declined to give advice to the Joint Commission in Magdeburg.
Lovis Corinth, Walchensee in autumn (Leo Lewin and Ismar Littmann collection).

literature

  • Inka Bertz, Michael Dorrmann (ed.): Looted art and restitution. Jewish property from 1933 to the present day. Published on behalf of the Jewish Museum Berlin and the Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt a. M. 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0361-4
  • Coordination Office for the Loss of Cultural Property Magdeburg (Ed.): Contributions from public institutions in the Federal Republic of Germany on dealing with cultural property from former Jewish property, Magdeburg 2001 (Publications 1), (p. 91 ff. And p. 172 ff.)
  • Gunnar Schnabel, Monika Tatzkow: Nazi Looted Art. Manual. Art restitution worldwide , Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-019368-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anja Heuss : The Littmann Collection and the "Degenerate Art" campaign; in: Inka Bertz, Michael Dorrmann (eds.): Looted art and restitution. Cultural property from Jewish property from 1933 to the present day, Frankfurt a. M. 2008, p. 69 ff.
  2. ^ Anja Heuss: The Littmann Collection and the "Degenerate Art" campaign; in: Inka Bertz, Michael Dorrmann (eds.): Looted art and restitution. Cultural property from Jewish property from 1933 to the present day, Frankfurt a. M. 2008, p. 72
  3. ^ Anja Heuss: The Littmann Collection and the "Degenerate Art" campaign; in: Inka Bertz, Michael Dorrmann (eds.): Looted art and restitution. Cultural property from Jewish property from 1933 to the present day, Frankfurt a. M. 2008, p. 74.
  4. ↑ Marilyn Henry: Stolen Beauty , accessed November 21, 2010
  5. ↑ a b Gunnar Schnabel, Monika Tatzkow: Nazi Looted Art. Manual. Art restitution worldwide , Berlin 2007, p. 444 ff.
  6. ↑ Press release of the Holocaust Claims Processing Office dated November 27, 2001 ( Memento dated January 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on November 21, 2010
  7. ^ Press release of the Holocaust Claims Processing Office dated June 17, 2003 ( memento of January 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on November 21, 2010
  8. ↑ Monica S. Dugot: The Holocaust Claims Processing Office: New York State's Approach to Resolving Holocaust-era Art Claims ( Memento from June 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Catherine A. Lillie, Speech to the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary, Policy, Trade and Technology; on July 27, 2006 ( Memento of January 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on November 21, 2010
  10. ↑ List of Resolved Stolen Art Claims , accessed on April 18, 2020
  11. ↑ Gunnar Schnabel, Monika Tatzkow: Nazi Looted Art. Manual. Art restitution worldwide , Berlin 2007, p. 262 ff.