Samuel Kende

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Samuel Kende (born 1858 in Klausenburg , Austrian Empire ; died 1928 in Vienna ) was an art dealer , antiquarian and auctioneer . He founded and ran the prominent art antiquarian and auction house S. Kende in Vienna , which was " Aryanized " after the annexation of Austria .

Life

Peter Fendi : Mother with Child under the Crucifix , 1899 in the Samuel Kende collection

Samuel Kende had come to Vienna from Transylvania . In 1888 he and his brother Albert Kende founded an antiquarian bookstore selling theological, archaeological and art literary works. From 1895 auctions took place. Albert Kende started his own business as an auctioneer in the 1890s.

The art antiquarian and auction house “S. Kende ”had Samuel Kende registered in 1918 as a sole proprietorship based in Vienna I , Weihburggasse 18, in the commercial register of the Vienna Commercial Court, later as an open trading company (OHG). He dealt with copperplate engravings , lithographs , oil paintings and watercolors . From 1920 the company headquarters was at Rotenturmstrasse 14, where it expanded its range to include furniture, carpets, jewelery, gold and silver goods. He carried out numerous art campaigns, including so-called house auctions, in which entire apartment inventories were auctioned on the spot, as organized by the Dorotheum , and counted well-known domestic and foreign collectors among his customers. After his death, his widow Melanie (born 1872) and the youngest son, Herbert Alexander Kende (born 1908) continued to run the auction house. 31 house auctions are documented for the years 1930 to 1938. In 1930 they organized a memorial exhibition for Rudolf von Alt , for which collectors made loans available. In 1937 the company achieved sales of around 487,000 schillings .

After Austria was " annexed " to the German Reich , Jews were forbidden to run a business at the end of 1938 at the latest. The elimination and expropriation of “Jewish” second-hand bookshops was completed within just a few months. The S. Kende company was initially managed "provisionally" by Blasius Fornach, the owner of an antiques, miniature and painting shop in Vienna, and then by Arthur Raimund Morghen, according to the files, as "Political Director of the NSDAP ". As early as mid-May 1938, the Munich art dealer Adolf Weinmüller had sought the “Aryanization” of the S. Kende company at the Reichstatthalterei (Austrian provincial government), which he was awarded on November 19, 1938 “despite violent protests from Viennese auction houses and art dealers”. She was named "S. Kende's successor. Adolph Weinmüller & Co. Wiener Kunstversteigerungshaus ”entered in the commercial register. Weinmüller runs the auction house until 1944.

Melanie Kende and her son Herbert were able to flee to the United States and founded the “Kende Galleries” art trade in New York. In 1947 they applied to the Restitution Commission in Vienna for restitution of their company. This was granted in 1948 and the auction house was renamed “S. Kende "renamed. It lasted until the 1950s. But they did not return to Vienna. Albert Kende died on December 3, 1942 at the age of 70 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp .

literature

  • Meike Hopp : The Aryanization of the auction house S. Kende in Vienna 1938 , in: dies .: Art trade under National Socialism: Adolf Weinmüller in Munich and Vienna , Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-412-20807-3 , Pp. 225-239

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mother with child under the crucifix , Austrian National Gallery Belvedere
  2. ^ Samuel Kende , in: Georg Hupfer: On the history of the antiquarian book trade in Vienna (diploma thesis University of Vienna 2003), Wienbibliothek.at, pdf pp. 166–167
  3. ↑ a b Gabriele Anderl: "Your poor, unhappy, completely broken old Albert Kende." The "Aryanization" of the art antiquarian and auction house S. Kende in Vienna by Adolph Weinmüller. (The text was published in June 2006 in: David. Jüdische Kulturzeitschrift.) Doew.at, pdf
  4. ↑ According to the "Ordinance on the Use of Jewish Assets" (Journal of Laws for Austria No. 633/1938) and the "Ordinance on the Elimination of Jews from German Economic Life" (Journal of Laws for Austria No. 619/1938) Walter Mentzel: Wiener NS- Second-hand bookshops and their role in book theft. Or: How second-hand bookshops profited from the persecution of the Jews. A research report. (pdf pp. 70–71) In: Bruno Bauer u. a. (Ed.): National Socialist Provenance Research at Austrian Libraries: Claim and Reality , Wolfgang Neugebauer Verlag, Graz – Feldkirch 2011, ISBN ISBN 978-3-85376-290-5
  5. ^ S. Kende , in: Auction houses in Vienna , Arthistoricum.net
  6. ^ Weinmüller, Adolf, in: Lost Art
  7. ^ Kunstantiquariat und Auktionshaus S. Kende , in: Auction catalogs , Austrian National Library, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Kende, Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian art dealer, auctioneer and antiquarian
DATE OF BIRTH 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Cluj-Napoca
DATE OF DEATH 1928
Place of death Vienna