Viktor Fogarassy

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Viktor Fogarassy (born May 6, 1911 in Pozsony (Bratislava), Austria-Hungary , † March 24, 1989 in Graz ) was an Austrian businessman and art collector . He was the managing partner of the Kastner & Öhler department store chain based in Graz, Styria . His art collection mainly contained works by Egon Schiele . The federal state of Styria named a sponsorship award for contemporary art after him, the Viktor Fogarassy Prize .

Life

Viktor Fogarassy's ancestors had been ennobled in the 17th century for their services in the fight against the Ottoman invasion. He grew up first in Hungary and then in Vienna, where he graduated from school in 1930 .

Fogarassy married Dollie Kastner, a granddaughter of Carl Kastner, a co-founder of the department store chain Kastner & Öhler based in Graz, and his Jewish wife Julie. After Austria's annexation in 1938, the leaders of the chain decided to sell their shares to their Aryan sons-in-law in order to prevent expropriation by the National Socialist rulers. Fogarassy became the head of the Zagreb branch in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . When this was expropriated by the Yugoslav communists in 1946, he returned to Graz, where he became a managing partner in 1949. He held this position until his retirement in March 1977 and was replaced by his son-in-law Franz Harnoncourt .

Small town by Egon Schiele
Dawning City by Egon Schiele

Fogarassy was one of the most important art collectors in Austria after the Second World War . His nephew reported that he had already bought Egon Schiele's prints before graduating from high school. According to Alexandra Comini, an American art historian, he began collecting pictures by Schiele before 1938. From the 1950s onwards he obtained them mainly from Galerie Würthle, which later sold parts of his estate. Fogarassy was a member of the board of trustees of the Styrian State Museum Joanneum in Graz. He was a member of the Rotary Club from 1968 and was its president in 1979 and 1980.

Fogarassy died on March 24, 1989 in Graz. The Requiem was held on March 31st in Graz Cathedral .

The sculptor Josef Pillhofer made a bronze portrait bust of Fogarassy in 1976, which was shown in an exhibition at the Belvedere in Vienna in 2002.

The state of Styria named a sponsorship award for young artists after him, the Viktor Fogarassy Prize as a sponsorship award of the state of Styria for contemporary visual arts . The works of the award winners are exhibited in the Neue Galerie des Joanneum.

In 2018, his descendants agreed to auction Schiele's Dawning City , which he had bought in good faith, in an act of voluntary private restitution and to share the proceeds with the heirs of the previous Jewish owner.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Report on the April 5, 1989 meeting . Rotary Club Graz, April 5, 1989.
  2. ↑ a b Self-Portrait with a Grimace (Grimacing Man) / Egon Schiele . Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b c d Sonja Niederacher: Dossier on Egon Schiele . December 31, 2014. Accessed July 29, 2019. 
  4. ↑ a b c d Gregor Derndt: Provenance Research Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum / Holdings of the Walther Kastner Collection March 12, 2014 (accessed on July 29, 2019).
  5. ↑ Olga Kronsteiner: Kunstverkauf / Why the auction of this painting by Egon Schiele is a sensation (de) . In: Der Standard , October 5, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2019. 
  6. ↑ Board of Trustees . In: Annual Report . Pp. 7-12. 1984. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  7. ^ Josef Pillhofer: Portrait head Viktor Fogarassy . Retrieved July 29, 2019. 
  8. ↑ Promotion Prize of the State of Styria for contemporary visual arts 2019 . In: Joanneum . Retrieved July 29, 2019. 
  9. ^ Viktor Fogarassy Prize 1990 . Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, 1990 (accessed July 29, 2019).
  10. ↑ Lucian Simmons: Impressionist & Modern Art / A Restituted Masterpiece by Egon Schiele ( English ) In: Sotheby’s . October 5, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Fogarassy, ​​Viktor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fogarassy, ​​Viktor Fogarassy Prize (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian merchant and art collector
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Pozsony (Bratislava), Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 1989
Place of death Graz