Walter Bornheim

Note from the US Army on Walter Bornheim

Walter Bornheim (born August 23, 1888 in Cologne ; † 1971 ) was a German art dealer.

Walter Bornheim attended high school in Cologne and then worked for the Lempertz auction house in Cologne, then at Bihn, a graphics dealer in Paris. He worked as an art dealer in London and Brussels. He took part in the First World War as a corporal and was taken prisoner by the French , from which he was released in 1920. Then worked as an art dealer in Cologne and specialized in graphics. In 1936/37, in the course of the " Aryanization ", he acquired the AS Drey art dealer in Munich , which he renamed the "Galerie für Alte Kunst GmbH". However, he actually ran this in trust and in 1945 paid the owner a considerable amount of money. He was with kajetan mühlmann one of the largest art dealers who in the looted art actions of the Nazis were involved. In particular, he bought for Hermann Göring from 1938 , often in France. After the war he continued to work as an art dealer in Graefelfing near Munich. From 1932 he was an advisor to Otto Schäfer .

literature

• Günther Haase: Art theft and art protection. A documentation . 2nd edition 2008, pp. 249-253.
• Kenneth D. Alford: The looting of Europe's art treasures and their dispersal after World War II. McFarland, Jefferson, NC / London 2012, ISBN 978-0-7864-6815, pp. 28-30.

Web links

• Records of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historical Monuments in War Areas (The Roberts Commission), 1943-1946 ›Detailed Interrogation Reports› DIR # 11 - Walter Bornheim
• Walter Bornheim at lostart.de
• Walter Bornheim in the Dictionary of Art Historians

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfram Selig: "Aryanization" in Munich. The annihilation of the Jewish existence 1937–1939 . Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-936411-33-1 , pp. 623-624.
2. ^ Günther Haase: Art theft and art protection. A documentation . 2nd edition 2008, p. 250.