THE PATH OF ART FROM SWITZERLAND TO AMERICA FROM THE LATE1930's TO THE EARLY 1950's: A Report of Research ResultsLaurie A. Stein

In a review of the Contemporary German Art exhibition held at the Institute of

Modern Art in Boston in the winter of 1939, Mary C.' Udall of Art News discussed a large

number of the works in the show which had been confiscated from German museum

collections in the 1930s and were now owned by American institutions and private

collectors. 1 Organized by the Institute's director James Plaut with Curt Valentin, a German

emigre dealer who was director of the Buchholz Gallery in New York, the exhibition included

works by Ernst Barlach, E.L.Kirchner, Paul Klee and Lyonel Feininger that had been purged

from the holdings of the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, as well as pieces by Max Beckmann, Paul

Klee, Gerhard Marcks and Oskar Kokoschka formerly in the collection of the

Gemaeldegalerie in Dresden and a broad range of major works taken from museums in cities

such as Weimar, Mannheim, Hamburg, Essen, Hannover, Breslau, Keil, Stettin, Halle and

Frankfurt. Regarding the emigration ofall these newly-arrived refugee artworks from Europe

to America at the outbreak of the Second World War, Udall stated,

"The Nineteen-Thirties stand as a milestone in German Art ... Astartling change has taken place since 1931. In the catalogue ofthe German exhibition held at the New York Museum of ModernArt in that year, one read, 'However much modern German art isadmired or misunderstood abroad, it is certainly supportedpublicly and privately in Germany with extraordinary generosity.Museum directors have the courage, foresight and knowledge tobuy works by the most advanced artists long before publicopinion forces them to do so. Some fifty German Museums are amost positive factor in supporting artists and in educating thepublic to an understanding of their work. German scholars,curators, critics and publishers are as active as the Museums.German art schools, academies, schools of applied arts, areremarkable in that they employ as teachers many of the mostadvanced German sculptors and painters.' That was in 1931 andthese were the same artists whose work now appears in theBoston exhibition. ,,2

The Boston showing of over 70 artworks in Boston, and a group ofother exhibitions

of'exiled artworks held during 1939-1945 at venues such as the Museum of Modern Art in

I See InstlUlte of l\lodem Art. Boston. Conlemporan German Art. November 2-December ~.1939, and. MaryC Udall. "Genmm Museum NaZl-Verbolen Art Exhibited in BOSIOIl".;A.rt News (No\em\:lcr II. 1939): 13.,- Udall. ibid. pi:;

~:.:

, ~;.'~j;..?.•...t:~~ .

New York, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The City Museum in Saint Louis, and at the

Buchholz Gallery and the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York, underline the extraordinary

breadth of traffic in art to the United States that was occuring in the Nazi era. 3 While some of

the art arrived as property ofcollectors, dealers and artists (usually either Jewish emigrants or

persecuted avant-garde figures), a larger proportion of the work entered the country through'

private gallery transactions between European and American-based dealers, and thrO!lgh the

auction of degenerate art held in Lucerne, Switzerland earlier that summer. The introduction

to the catalogue of the Boston exhibition highlighted the transfer of art to Switzerland for the

Lucerne auction, explaining: "In the spring of 1939, over one hundred publicly owned objects

of art, of both German and foreign origin, were taken to Switzerland, where they were sold at

public auction. Many of them were bought by a syndicate for the Belgian museums, and a

large number came to the United States. It is largely from among these that the present

exhibition has been chosen."4

The research undertaken for this study aims to trace in depth the pathof confiscated or

looted artworks from Swiss sources to American museum collections from the late 1930's

until the early 1950'S5 The methods in which Switzerland played a role in the process of

transfer of art to the United States were highly varied; beyond the degenerate art auction,

works were sold through Swiss-based galleries or middle-men, were paid for through Swiss

banks, and or transported to Swiss museums or collections for safekeeping before the works

were sent on to America. .

In order to gain more precise understanding of the "Swiss connection," I reviewed

object and document files from six American museum collections (Solomon R. Guggenheim

Museum, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Fogg Art Museum and Busch­

Reisinger Museum of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Art Institute of

Chicago, David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago), as well as

researching archives of an American-based dealer (Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York) and

several private collectors (Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Saint Louis, MissourL and Beatrice Cummings

3 TIlCse shows included tlIe Arl in Our Time Exhibition al MOMA. 1939..in 0/ Tomomlll" at Ule GuggenheimFoundation in 1939. shows of refugee or exiled art at IDe Minneapolis Institute of Arts and TIle City Art Museumof St.Louis in 19~O""'I. and shows such as the Landmarks in .llodem Arl at Ihe Pierre Matisse Gallery. 1940-~ I.See Vi\ian Endicott Barnett. "Banned Gennan Art: Reception and Institutional Support of Modem Gennan Artin the United States. I<)33 ..... 5. in Barron. Exiles and EmiWes. Los Angeles: LAC'MA. 1998. pp. 273-284: andReinhold Heller. "The E~..pressionist Challenge. James Plaut and me Institute of Contemporary Art." Dissent:The Issue of Contemporan Art in Boston. Boston and Malibu: The Institute of Contemporary Art and the 1. PaulGetty Trust. Northeastern University Press. December 5. 1985-February 9. 1986. pp. 17-53.I Institute of Modem An. Boston. Contempol"'df\ GennanAn. November 2-Deccmber 3.193'.>. p. 6., Originally. the study was only to encompass the years leading up to and during the Second World War.However. it was soon clear from revic\\ of the material that due to much buy 109 and glftmg m the early 1950s ofworks \\ hlCh had been affected by the subject in question. the Ume frame should be expanded

2

Mayer, Chicago).6 I followed leads from lender lists in numerous contemporary exhibition

catalogues and pamphlets, and undertook extensive bibliographic and library research in

primary and secondary sources. Finally, in the case of objects in America that had been

confiscated from the Folkwang Museum in Essen, the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld,

and the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, I searched through archival records and correspondence

between directors, collectors, colleagues and dealers during and after the period for

information on the German institutions tracking the traces of their fom1er holdings on the

international art market. 7

As I began the study, in some cases it was already known that works had come

through Switzerland via the degenerate art auction but the details of the acquisitions had not

been studied. In other cases, provenance records hinted that works may have been sold or

transferred through Switzerland and the research entailed pursuing these clues to verify or

deny the possibility. €In one example, the current study showed that the myths of American

museum directors and collectors purchasing art in the 1930's through. Swiss sources, in order

to rescue it from the National Socialists, need to be reconsidered.8. It must be remembered

that while Europe went to war, America was still conducting business as usual, even in the

cultural arena--defining new museum collecting policies, mounting exhibitions, and building

private collections from the best possible art available on the market. In contrast to the rather

surprising (and dubious) assertion by Cesar Mange de Hauke, a dealer in New York and Paris

who was known to work actively with the Nazis, in a 1944 letter to Fogg Art Museum. . '"

director Paul Sachs that, "Art life in Paris has been very dull during the war--very very few

worthwhile things, in any field, came on the market. ,,9 the records consulted here show that

Switzerland, as a neutral country with advantageous export regulations and financial

structures. was an optimal site for multitudinous art transactions. The range and constancy of

recently-arrived works being offered and acquired by Americans evidences that the United

States became a welcoming homeland for confiscated and looted art, and Switzerland became

probably the most important conduit country for the rush of American art collecting during

the era.

i· Unfortunately. the Los Angeles COlUlty Museum of Art. which "as supposed to be included in the study. wasnot able at tItis time to make material available.- Papers in tIle holdings of the Folkwang Museum in Essen has shown that German museum directors andpatrons followed the e\'ents of the intcmational art market dUring the war years as closely as possible. I havefound numerous references to buyers. prices. etc .. in such material in the past,~ This is the case of the Beckmarm .\e/f~f'ortralf In Tuxedo. see text belo\\ and Busch-Reisinger case study formore detail and discussion about Otis., De Hauke. Paris. to Sachs. Cambridge. \1A. October·t 19..-1. Han'ard LlII\·crsi~ An .\luseulIls Archives.Sachs Correspondence.

3

The results of my research are organized in two sections. The first is a summary of the

differing means of transfer of art through Switzerland to the United States, including offerings

of degenerate art for sale through public auction or private transaction to both American

museums and individual collectors, the sale ofworks with unclarified provenance known to

have been kept in Switzerland during or immediately after the war, and the acquisition of

objects from private hands (not confirmed to have been confiscated officially but possibly

given up through forced sale) through Swiss collectors or dealers. This is followed by a more

specialized section detailing relevant works in each of the museum collections under

consideration, presented as case studies by institution and including an additional report on

dealer archival materials and exhibition materials consulted for this project.

The primary contributions of the research, above and beyond the pure acquisition of

more detailed understanding of the breadth and methods of exchange between American and

Swiss art sources, are 1) new insight into the intricate relationship between Karl Buchholz in

Germany, C~ristoph Bernoulli in Switzerland, Curt Valentin in New York, and Pierre Matisse

in New York through dealing activities to bring confiscated art from Europe to the American

market, 2) heightened evidence of Valentin's capability to bring art to America for sale, and

of the profound level of this dealer's influence on American collections at this time, 3)

confirmation of instances of American hesitation to purchase art of uncertain origin or

ownership title during and after war by New York collector Maurice Wertheim (who bought

despite these hesitations) and by the Art Institute of Chicago, 4) revelation of the complete

circumstances and details of the 1939 acquisition by Hilla von Rebay and Solomon R.

Guggenheim ofa group of important artworks through a trail stemming directly from the

German government, to dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt in Germany, to artist Otto Nebel and dealer

Dr. August Klipstein in Switzerland, to the Guggenheim Foundation in New York, 10 and 5)

the discovery of a variety of names of collectors, art world figures, and even shippers, that

may help to answer or raise questions in other research on the subjects.

For the purposes of providing the most comprehensive analysis possible in the period

of time available for the research, and in part also due to the nature of the collections chosen

for the study, I have limited my review to late 19th and 20th century artworks. This focus

provides the opportunity to look at the material in a deeper contextual framework and allows

'. In the case or the Guggenheim collection. the stud~ also sho\\ s that due to the diltgcnI drons of VivianBarnett and Angelica Rudinstine in the 1970 s-gO s. the~ have sel a model for responsIble provenance checkingU1 Amencan institutions. long before such research was cOInlllonplace

4

for interrelationships between the collecting activities of collectors, dealers and museums to

be more closely considered. II

SECTION 1: SUMMARY

In 1938, when the German Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda decided

to auction 125 paintings and sculptures from the thousands ofworks that had been purged in

1937 from thirty-two public institutions as degenerate art (defined as those pieces which

"insult German feeling, or destroy or confuse natural form, or simply reveal an absence of

adequate manual and artistic skill"), 12 Galerie Fischer in Lucerne, Switzerland was chosen as

the site for the sale. 13 Most of the pieces selected for auction had been held at Schloss

Niederschonhausen in Berlin along with other German and international works deemed of

significant value on the foreign art market; eighteen paintings and one sculpture had been

included in the Degenerate Art exhibition that had opened in Munich in 1937 and toured

throughout Germany thereafter.l.J Hoping to dispose of the art for the maximum possible

foreign currency to be deposited in Reich accounts through the Bank of Sv,:itzerland, press

announcements of the upcoming auction were distributed to--or perhaps more to the point,

were restricted to--major international art organs such as New York-based Art News. It

appears that the texts of pre-sale pro'paganda were carefully orchestrated by the National

Socialists. For example, employing an artificially-upbeat tone, Art News reported,

"The sale of a unique collection of paintings from German museums, all ofwhich rank as masterworks of outstanding twentieth century artists, is anevent which should attract many visitors to Lucerne on June 30....Thedisposal of these canvases, which up till now have occupied places of

~) honor in the leading museums of Germany, is a result of the Kulturpolitikof the Third Reich and brings to the market works ofa quality andimportance such as have not been available since the early part of thecentury... further foreign works which have fallen under the ban of officialdisapproval, that should add luster to any collection. ,,15

11 There are undoubtedly hWldreds of e:-.:amplcs of decorati\'e arts and Old Master pieces which also would havebeen relennt to the topic. but to include these further research and tra\'el would be necessary.

I~Ql.Ioted in: Stephanie Barron. "Degenerate Art" The Fate of the A\ant-Garde in Nazi Gennan\'. Los Angeles:Los Angeles County Museum of Art. IlJ91. p. 19.[' Haberstock suggested Theodor Fischer. see Barron. p. 137. TIlfough the research by Anja Heuss and theSwiss COIrunission in Lucerne. the circumstances are currently being stUdied.1 I The question of inaccuracies in the up-to-now infonnation 011 exactl) how much art was auctioned is diseussedin the te:'>:t belo\\. and is also under consideration b\ Heuss and the Colllluission.15 "European Auctions--XX CentuI;- Paintings [ro;n German Museums" Art Nc\\s (\1a~ 2ll. 1(39): 11-18.

5

No American museums purchased works directly from the auction. Alfred Barr, Jr.,

director of the Museum of Modern Art, for example, even made a point of not making any

acquisitions there in order to avoid the appearance of paying art ransom that would go straight

to German military and political coffers. 16 Private collectors and dealers from America,

though, made numerous purchases at the sale, mostly buying anonymously through agents.

For example, Maurice Wertheim, a New York banker and philanthropist who had begun

collecting late 19th and early 20th century art only three years before, purchased Van Gogh's

Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin, 1888, oil on canvas, for 175,000 SF (approximately

$20,000).17 This was the most expensive price paid for a single work in the auction,

representing a large proportion of the revenue generated by the entire sale. Wertheim did not

attend the Luc'erne auction himself. Instead, the work was purchased for him by Alfred

Frankfurter, editor of Art News, who was a key advisor to Wertheim as he built his collection.

The van Gogh had been purchased by Hugo von Tschudi in 1906 and donated as part

of the Tschudi-Spende to the Neue Staatsgalerie in Munich in 1919 before being confiscated

by the Nazis in 1937. In 1951, when Wertheim passed away, he left the van Gogh in his

bequest of over 43 paintings, sculptures and drawings to the Fogg Art Museum. Today it is

one of the masterpieces of this Harvard University collection. Unfortunately, the Wertheim's

papers left to Harvard contain no references to the purchase of the van Gogh at the auction

and my efforts to locate Alfred Frankfurter's papers have been unsuccessful (as of yet), so

there is no surviving material documentation to indicate how Wertheim decided to buy this

particular work and if he had the publisher submit any bids on other pieces at the sale.l~

There is also no extant information about the circumstances of acquisitions at the

Degenerate Art sale for some ofthe other private collectors who bought there and later gifted

the pieces to American museum collections: namely, Paul Geier, a collector in Cincinnati,

Ray LeBerdeau, of New York, and Hans Swarzenski, originally from Germany. I') Geier

bought, among other works, Franz Marc's Grazing Horses IV, 1911, oil on canvas, which is

Ih See. for example: Lynn H. Nicholas. TIle Rape of Europa. New York Vintage Books. ll)l)-l. p. -l.1" For a good discussion of WCI1heim cmd his buying. sec: John O'Brian. Degas to Matisse. TIle MauriceWeI1heim Collection. Cambridge. MA: Harry N. Abrams. Inc.. and the Fogg AI1 Museum/Haf\ard University.1988: Barron. p.135-1-l6.18 AI1news repoI1s that their meager archival material from FrankfuI1er's time docs not include an~1hing relevantto the publisher's art advising adi\ities and has offered to help find Frankfurter's heirs This might take sometime. The papers also do not seem [0 be among the holdings of the Arclll\es of American An. Wertheim'scorrespondence at the Fogg. oddl~. includes nothing of significant content between Frankfurter and Wertheim..and the same is true of the Sachs papers in the Harvard University Art Museums Arclmes .

. I' See Barron for infonnation on the purchases of these mdividuals Bcrdcau corresponded willl Barr in the1950's and there were sc\eral sales at Parkc-Bernet and Chrisllcs or Berdeau artworks i n the I960s. With moretime. these could be checked

6

on long-term joint loan to the Busch-Reisinger Museum (formerly the Germanic Museum) at

Harvard and the Cincinnati Art Museum.

More concrete information can be gleaned from material about Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.,

one of the few American coIlectors known to have personaIly attended the Lucerne auction. A

young collector from Saint Louis, Pulitzer was on his honeymoon trip in Europe during the

summer of 1939. With New York dealer Pierre Matisse acting as his representative, he

traveled to Lucerne for the June 30th sale and there made three important purchases of Nazi­

confiscated art at the Swiss auction--Henri Matisse's Bathers with a TlIrrle, 1908, oil on

canvas, originally in the collection of the Folkwang Museum, Essen, Otto Mueller's Nudes in

a La/ld'icape, c. 1922, oil on canvas, from the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, and

Wilhelm Lehmbruck' s Seated Girl, 1913-14, terracotta, from the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart.20

Pulitzer did not purchase the works without hesitation. He stated, "We were faced with a

terrible conflict--a moral dilemma. If the work was bought, we knew the money was going to

a regime we loathed. If the work was not bought, it would be destroyed. To safeguard the art

for posterity, I bought--defiantly!. ...But the real motive in buying was to preserve the art. ,,21

Information provided by Emily Rauh Pulitzer of St. Louis and new material consulted

for this research in the Pierre Matisse Gallery Archives provide,pertinent documentation

about Pulitzer's purchases through Matisse at the Lucerne auction. Both \1atisse and Valentin

were instrumental in Pulitzer's decision to buy at the auction. The collector explained, "I do

not recall which collectors were present but there were two dealers, Curt Valentin and Pierre

Matisse, who were my friends who were present. The former recommended that my then

wife, the late Louise Vauclain Pulitzer, and I attend the auction. and the latter bid for me. ,,22

Pulitzer began buying art from the Matisse Gallery in 1936 when he was stiJl a student

at Harvard. The correspondence between client and dealer demonstrates that there was an

ambitious exchange ofopinions and ideas between them. 23 From the beginning of Pulitzer's

collecting life. the young Saint Louisian exercised a determined consciousness about quality

and highly ind~pendent preferences. During the summer of 1938. he traveled to Europe,

visiting France, Austria and Germany. With his journalistic experience, he was keenly aware

of the evolving political situation there. With a collector's eye, spending time in the art

galleries and making a number of purchases in Paris, he was conscious of the art world

:" For more detailed discussion. scc: Lauric A SIt:in. "TI1C HistOry and Rcccpiion of \ldLJs~'SBathers with aFurlle in Gcnnan~. 1908-1939." y"es-Alain Bois. Jolm Elderlield. and Laurie A. Slcill Henri Matisse's Batherswith a Tunic Saint Louis: The Saint Louis Art Museum. IlJ9K pp 50-72:1 Paul Gardner. "A Bit of Heidelberg 1'car Hanard Square." An 1'C\\S xo ( IlIX I) It ~:: Letter from Joseph Pulilzer to Lynn Nicholas. November 20. IlJX3:.1 See Pierre Matisse GallelY Archive material noted in Section II

7

situation on the eve of the war. In an undated letter, apparently from May 1939, Pulitzer wrote

to Matisse about his plans to travel to Europe again in the summer of the degenerate art

auction, explaining "I am most interested in the Rouault painting which look splendid on my

walls. However, I do not wish to buy it now and therefore must take my chances that it will

not be sold until the fall. The main reason for this is that I expect to attend the auction of

paintings from German museums in Lucerne on June 30 and wish to be in a position to bid on

certain pictures that interest me. I hope I shall see you before then as no doubt you can gi ve

me helpful advice on the politics of an auction... ,,24

Since Matisse bid for Pulitzer at the auction, and was the recipient of the shipment of

the works on the ship President Harding, it is clear that the dealer did provide the requested

"helpful advice on the politics ofan auction.". The Galerie Fischer receipt for the works,

dated July 1939 and made out to Matisse, was rediscovered in the papers consulted for this

study. Seen as a whole, the dqcumentation from Pulitzer and Matisse pulls together some of

the only material evidence in American holdings that summarizes the entire process of

transfer for artworks-- from the sale at Galerie Fischer in Switzerland, from planning to attend

the auction, through purchase and payment there, through transport to the United States,

subsequent exhibition history and ownership, first privately and then finally as a gift to The

Saint Louis Art Museum in 1964.

When asked by Lynn Nicholas in ]983 about his purchases at the Lucerne auction,

Pulitzer stated that he considered he had bought not three, but four works at the sale, because

"A few months after the auction I bought from the Buchholz Gallery (Curt Valentin) in New

York a Max Beckmann Portrait (?fZerete/li, 1927, which my friend, the dealer, had acquired

at this auction," and that all the works were "packed and shipped from Switzerland by

freight. ,,25 This statement brings forth an issue that recurred more than once in this study--that

is, of an artwork reportedly bought by an American dealer or collector in Lucerne but not

confirmed to have been in the sale. Object records for the Zeretelli in Pulitzer's papers and at

the Fogg Art Museum, where the collector gifted it in ]951, contain no reference to the

Beckmann (which had been confiscated from the Staatliche Gemaldegalerie in Dresden) as

having being sold at the auction, but since Pulitzer was on-site in Lucerne and had an

excellent memory for detail, his statement must be true26 Perhaps Valentin bought the work

~~ ibid.> Letter. PuJitler to Nicholas. No\cmbcr 2(1 1')1'1\~., I can \ en~ this frol1ll1l~ 0\\ n expenences \\ ith Joe PulitL.er and in dealings with Ius fanlll~ dUring research onIus colleCtIon. I ha\e found there arc rdIcly lllconslstencics or maCCUrdCICS in thc documcntation on the artpurchases--sometimes gaps or lack of infonnation--but almost ne\er incorrect.

8

at Fischer prior to or after the sale? When the painting was lent to the Boston show in the fall

of 1939, it was already in America and in Valentin's possession.

Similarly, according to the object files at the Busch-Reisinger, E.L. Kirchner's Berlin

Street Scene, Potsdamer Platz, c. 1914, pastel with black chalk, was acquired by this Harvard

University museum in 1950 from emigre art historian Hans Swarzenski, who had reportedly

bought the work at the Fischer Gallery Auction of Degenerate Art in Lucerne in 1939.27 Yet,

this work on paper would not have been among the works in the sale of Paintings and

Sculptures: Modern Masters from German Museums, so the circumstances of the inclusion of

the work in a Fischer auction must be reviewed. It is clear that there was much more dealing

between American-based buyers with Fischer and in Lucerne, Switzerland, either in front of

the auction block or behind the scenes, than has been recognized up until now.

IJ Curt Valentin, director of the Buchholz Gallery in New York, had emigrated from

Germany to America in 1936-37, and having worked with Alfred Flechtheim and Karl

Buchholz in Berlin, he arrived with solid pre-existing connections to American art world

figures such as Charles Kuhn, director of the Germanic Museum, and Alfred H. Barr, Jr.,

director of The Museum of Modern Art 28 After establishing his gallery in Manhattan in 1937,

Valentin quickly became, in the words of collector Morton May, "this country's most

influential figure in the development of modern art. More than any other single person, he was

responsible for the introduction of modern sculpture, German Expressionist painting and

modern English painting and sculpture. ,,29 In the introduction to the exhibition A Tribute to

Curt J'alelltin in 1955, Perry Rathbone, director of the City Art Museum of Saint Louis, was

even more precise about the dealer's contribution, claiming, "When he [Valentin] died in

C) August, 1954, there was not a community in America where art is cultivated that had not felt

his influence...He educated a generation of museum men, and he stimulated a host of

collectors who are to be found in every part of America ,,30 Pulitzer had begun buying from

Valentin in 1939-40, including a Klee J.and<;c:ape, and in 1940, the Zeretelli and a Juan Gris

Still L{fe. Chicago collectors Mary and Earle Ludgin purchased a remarkable Emil Nolde

watercolor, Two Girls, 1929, formerly in the Kunsthaus Bielefeld collection, trom him; this

~- See Section II for more infonnation.~~ Gardner. p. 11-1-. Kuhn. for e:xamplc. stated th~lt. "When Ill) wiCe and I went to Europe In 1930. we naturallywent to Berlin and got to kIlOW Curt Valentin. who was thcn working for Alfred Flcchthcinl. Berlin's leadingdealer. Curt introduced us to the entire Berlin art world.">- Tcstimonial from Monon Ma~. September Y. 1963. primed III Musts and Maecenas A Tribute to CunValentin. ~e\\ York: Marlborough-Gerson Gallc,!. No\embcr-Deccmber IlJC>-;. o. 15;< Pcn: Rathbone. A Tribute to Cun Valentin. 51 Louis The CIt\ Art MuseuIl1 of 5t LOUIS. January I~-Febroa~

1-1-. 11)55. P 5.

9

work is today in the collection of the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art Collection at

the University ofChicago.3!

The papers I consulted for this study also expose that there was a direct business

relationship between Valentin and Pierre Matisse. Not only did Matisse purchase works, such

as Braque' s Le Radical, from Valentin in 1939, but by 1940, the two gallerists were

sometimes involved in intricate and costly deals to get art sent from Europe to America

through contacts such as Karl Buchholz in Germany and Christoph Bernoulli in Switzerland.

It appears, in fact, that there was a direct line of art movement--from Buchholz to Bernoulli to

Valentin, and sometimes also to Matisse, with the most important link in the chain being

Valentin's ability to transfer objects through Switzerland. At times, the relationship among

the partners was strained by the escalating costs of bringing art to America with war risk

{) insurance and unexpected commissions to complete the d.eals.

This can be most clearly seen in the correspondence in spring 1940 between Valentin

and Matisse concerning a work by Henri Matissen Pierre Matisse wrote to Valentin on April

11 th about the work (which remained unnamed in the papers), that,

"In accordance with our agreement concerning the Matisse painting, I am sending youmy check for $250 representing your commission on my purchase of the paintingwhich finally arrived safely in this country a short while ago... ln appreciation of yourhelp on this occasion 1 would have liked to make my commission more substantial butI found that the expenses connected with the purchase of this painting and itstransportation to this country have run up much higher than I expected."

Valentin responded the next day that,

"I have your check for $250 representing my commission on the painting you bought.~) To be frank, I am a little disappointed. I don't remember whether'we really fixed the

amount of the percentage when I saw you in Paris at the Rue de Seine... .l understandquite well by my own experiences how high the expenses for shipping and insuranceare these days. However, I think I did everything possible to help you in buying thispainting. "

Matisse countered,

"At the time we talked about your commission I mentioned five or seven percent ofthe purchasing price which is what Mr. Bernoulli said you would take and you seemedsatisfied at that time.. .1 had the greatest difficulties in getting this picture over here.Not only did I have to pay for war risk, regular insurance, packing and shipping, butalso commissions to people I never heard of and the total expense for packing andshipping alone would have brought over here at least four boxes of paintings at therate of which I am used to import them. Besides, Mr. Bernoulli complains that he hasalso personal expenses and asks me to increase his own commission. I appreciate verymuch your help and I have no doubt that you did all you could in this matter but you

.: Sec Section IL1: For the following corresPondcnce. sec Plcrre Matisse Gall~r: Arelli \ c nOlcs iii Sewoll II

10

must also consider that beside what I had to go through and the risks I was personallytaking, your position was one totally free of responsibility."

The role of Switzerland as a key venue in Valentin's sales not only to private

collectors but also to American museum collections is evident through a wealth of objects

reviewed for this study. For example, Valentin organized a show of Max Beckmann's work

at the Germanic Museum in 1941. Charles Kuhn, director of the museum, had been

purchasing sculptures and works on paper by German artists such as Barlach, Sintenis, Kolbe,

Dix, Grosz, Feininger, and Hofer since the early 1930s.33 He refrained from dealing directly

with the Nazi government and bought no works in Lucerne, but he had purchased two works

from Curt Valentin in Germany in 1934, and he was so impressed by Beckmann's works in

the 1941 show organized by the dealer that he decided to purchase from the masterpiece Self­

Portrait in Tuxedo, 1927, from him after the show closed.

This acquisition, although not a deliberate eftort on the pan of Kuhn to "rescue" an

artwork confiscated by the Nazis from Berlin's Nationalgalerie, as has been sometimes

reponed, was significant for defining a new direction for collecting policy by the institution. 34

Accorqing to Peter Nisbet, curator of the museum today, "This was the first modern painting

in the collection. The acquisition was a turning point, and Kuhn recognized the moral

benefit. ,,35 The object records include a handwritten note, probably contemporaneous to the

time of acquisition, that relates that the work was "Acquired by the Buchholz Gallery, through

an agent in Switzerland from the Berlin National-galerie." Ina respected study of Beckmann

by art historian Barbara Buenger, the instrumental role played by Swiss sources in bringing he

painting to America is also cited:16 The relationship of Valentin and Kuhn continued after the

war, when the museum began building their modern German paintings collection in earnest.

Kuhn bought, for example, Ernst Heckel's important triptych, 7'0 the Conm!escellt Woman,

1912-13, formerly of the Folkwang Museum in Essen, from Valentin in 1950.

The highest concentration of works of degenerate art from Germany to come an

American museum through Valentin's influence and connections with Buchholz in Germany

and Bernoulli in Switzerland, can be found today at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

.13 Peter Nisbet and Emilie Norris. Thc Busch-Reisinger Museum. Hist0ll....und Holdings Cambridge. MA:HUf\ard Uni"ersit, Art Museum. 1991 ..'4 This idea has been oftcn playcd up. scc. for eXample. Gardner. p. 115.\;' Intef\iew. Laurie A. Stein and Peter Nisbet. Cambridge. MA. March 2000..lr, Barnard Copeland Buenger. Max Beckmann. Self-Portmit in Words. Collected Wri!l.!lgs & Statements, 1903­50. Chicago and London Uni,ersity of Chicago Press. 1lJ66~ p 15. No further details h;1\c ~et been detennined.but it might be possible to leam more In records of the shipplflg finns used by Valenun 111 the linited States.Hudson Shipping ,md S W Budworth & Sons. both in New York. or the Gcnnanic r"lUSCUIll IIIsumnce agent.SF Frankenstein. should an~ of these records still be available

] 1

lIli)·~' ..

Although MaMA's director, Alfred Barr, declined to purchase works at the Lucerne auction,

he did not shy away from buying confiscated art through American-based commercial dealers

such as Valentin. 37

Near the close of the exhibition celebrating the museum's 10th anniversary, Art in Our

TIme, held during May-September 1939, it was announced that MaMA had bought five

works from German museums through Valentin's Buchholz Gallery. These included E.L.

Kirchner's Street Scene, 1913-14, purged from the Nationalgalerie in Berlin. and Paul Klee's

Around the Fish, 1926, from the Staatliche Gemaldegalerie, Dresden, as well as major works

by Lehmbruck, Derain and Matisse. Concerning the decision to add these pieces to the

collection, articles in Art News and Art Digest praised MaMA for purchasing confiscated

artworks, as "the Museum, like other European and American collections, by acquiring them,

gives the strongest condemnation to the policies which barred these and similar artistic

expressions. ,,38 Barr was quoted as proclaiming, "The museum is very fortunate in having

acquired these works of art .. .The only good thing about the exile of such fine works of art

from one country is the consequent enrichment of other lands where cultural freedom still

exists. ,,39 In essence, Barr did not avoid the press' reading of the acquisition as a patriotic

public relations opportunity.

Over the next fifteen years, the close relationship between MaMA and Valentin can

be traced in a wide array of acquisitions ofconfiscated art and works of undetermined

provenance that reached the museum through the dealer's hands40 A selection of pieces sold

directly from the gallery to the museum include, in 1939: Max Beckmann' s Jhe Prodigal Son,

1918, four works, gouache on parchment, from the Folkwang Museum, Essen; Paul Klee's

HI'itterillg lit/achille, 1922, watercolor and pen and ink on oil transfer paper mounted on

cardboard, from the Nationalgalerie in Berlin and taken for foreign sale from the Degenerate

Art show; Emil Nolde, A-Iagicians, 1931-35, watercolor; in 1941: Wassily Kandinsky,

Untitled (Abstrakte Komposilion), 1915, india ink on paper, from the Kunsthalle Mannheim;

in 1945: and Otto Dix, Cq(e Couple, 1921, watercolor and pencil. Valentin himself also

donated art to the museum, such as Kirchner's Street Scene, pen and ink. and El Lissitsky's

r For purposes of this study. I "ould likc to thank the Department of Prints and Dra"mgs at MOMA for thcirc:'\tradordinary 0pclmess for m~ undertaking this study. Kathlecn Cuny. especially. \HiS enonnollsly helpful. aswas Feri Dcftari. I also would like to thank John Eldcrficld and the paintings department ..1" See "New ,"'ork: Exiled Europeans." Art News H (Septcmber 16. IlJ39l: 16. and. An Digcst (September I.IlJ3lJ) X" Dlscusscd in Vivian E Bamen. p 27'). "Ncw York Exiled Europcans." Art Ne\\s'- (Septcmbcr 16.1939):16•. For more Ulformation on the mdl\idual works. sec Scction II

12

PrOlIl1 Composition, gouache and ink, both gifted by the dealer in 1941, and Max Beckmann's

major oil, Deposition, 1917, which was part of the Curt Valentin Bequest after his death.

The only direct reference to Switzerland found in connection with Valentin's dealings

with MOMA is noted in the object file of the latter piece. On a questionnaire about this

painting filled out for the museum, probably on its accession, the history of the work as

confiscated from the SUidelsche Galerie in Frankfurt is detailed. In answer to the question,

"Were there any exceptional circumstances or incidents in the making of this work or in its

subsequent history?" it is written, "Was defamed and taken by the Nazi's and exhibited by

them in the 'Entartete Kunst' (degenerate art) exhibition. Later brought to Switzerland with

other paintings to be sold in an auction for the purpose of the Nazi's to receive foreign money.

Otherwise it would have been destroyed like many other paintings. ~,41 The painting was not

included in the Lucerne sale, according to MOMA records. Perhaps it was brought to

Switzerland for one of the other planned auctions. In any event, the notation in the object file

underscores that at least a percentage, if not a substantial quantity, of the art that came

through Valentin to MOMA came through Swiss sources.

This is probably also be true for many of the pieces which went through Valentin's

hands to private collectors who later donated or sold the works to MOMA. For example, Paul

Klee's The Fisherman, 1921, watercolor and ink, and originally fromthe collection of the

Nationalgalerie in Berlin, was bought at Valentin in 1940 by collector John S. Newberry of

Michigan and given to MOMA in 1961, and Emil Nolde's Christ Amon!? the Children, 1910,

oil on canvas, which went from the Hamburg Kunsthalle collection to Karl Buchholz in Berlin

to Buchholz Gallery in New York and to W.R. Valentiner, himselfa German emigre art

historian, who donated it the museum in 1955.

In retrospect, there is an element of irony in the fact that between Art in (Jur Time in

1939 and MOMA's exhibition during the summer of 1942, New Acquisitio!ls: Free German

Art, a purchase from Valentin such as Lehmbruck's Kneelin!? Woman became "a veritable

icon of the effort against the Axis powers, appearing in numerous newspaper and magazine

photographs as well as on postcards, ,,42 and that Dix' s Cafe Couple was purchased through

Valentin in 1945, after he helped Karl Buchholz. living in Bogota, Columbia after the war, to

regain his possessions which had been vested by the post-war Alien Property Custodian.

Curt Valentin also pursued business opportunities with a broad range of other

American museums. including the Solomon R. Guggenhim Foundation in ~ew York. On

September 19. 1939, he wrote to Hilla von Rebay, Guggenheim' s curator. that he had tried to

. \10.'l.lA Object File. Beckmawt :n~.:'5

13

reach her in Paris because the German government wanted to sell degenerate artworks and he

explained, "I could buy all these pictures. ,,43 Rebay, who was involved in a drive for

acquisitions from French, Swiss, German and other European sources for the new Museum of

Non-Objective Art she and Guggenheim were planning (in relative secrecy) to open in New

York, visited Munich herself around that time and saw the Degenerate Art show. She

reported with excitement that she had seen some "real treasures" in the sho\v and "Then 1 read

that foreigners can buy them. ,,44 Soon, working with artist-dealer Rudolf Bauer in Berlin and

artist Otto Nebel in Switzerland, both of whom Rebay had known in Berlin in the Weimar

years and with whom she had founded the avant-garde artist's group The Krater in 1920, and

with dealers such as Karl Nierendorf in New York and August Klipstein in Bern, the curator

and her patron collected an astonishing and important group of works for their museum of

,) pieces that had been confiscated from German collections.

Some of the artworks, including Wassily Kandinsky's Silence (Komposition Ruhe),

1928, a work which came from the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, was acquired by the

Guggenheim in 1939, sold in 1964, and now is in a private collection in Chicago, and

Kandinsky's Yellow'-Green Crescent (G(ftf(riine Sickel), 1927, from the SUidtisches Museum

fOr Kunst und Kunstgewerbe in Halle, bought also by the Guggenheim in 1939, sold in 1971,

with present location unknown, came not through Switzerland but through Berlin dealer

Ferdinand Moller to Rudolf Bauer and then directly to the Guggenheim collection upon

Bauer's emigration to the United States in 1939.45

Another group of acquisitions, though, including six paintings by Kandinsky and one

by Robert Delaunay all still in the Guggenheim Museum collection in l\ew York, were

C'D organized for purchase through Otto Nebel working in concert with the Bern dealer August

Klipstein, and illuminate explicitly the role of Switzerland in art transfer activities between

Germany, Switzerland and an American museum in the Nazi era. Rebay already knew about

the German government's intention to sell art internationally by the time that Valentin

contacted her in September 1938; a month earlier, on August 19, 1938, Otto Nebel had

written a long and, in retrospect, key letter to her about the confidential and politically

~: Heller. p ~6.

tJ Letter. Curt Valentin to Hilla Rebay. Septembcr 19. 1938. Hilla \"on Rcbay Archi\"C. Solomon R. GuggenheimMuseum. quoted in: Bamctt. pp 276-77.~~ Letter. Otto Nebel to Hilla Rebay. August I~. I~J8. Hilla "on Rcbay Archiyc. Solomon R GuggenheimMuseum. quoted in: Joan Lukach. Hilla Reba'. In Search of the Spirit in An. New York Georges Bmzillicr.19!D. p 120~.; I pursued research on these pieces. in Chicago and elsewhere during this study. tlunkillg. they may have comcthrough SWH/erland. Although this pro\ed not to be the casco it was interesting to \enl\ infonlmtion on thepurchases through Bauer and Moller. and 10 find a numbcr of excellcnt installation phOlogmphs of the works inBerlin

J4

sensitive plan. He included a list ofworks he considered important for the Guggenheim,

explaining,

"...I have been asked to inquire whether you have any interest in certain pictures...Nowthen: via a go-between from the German ministry of propaganda. Dr. Kli--n of this citywas recently offered more than 500 pictures from German museums (so-called'degenerate art '). They intend to sell this material in order to acquire foreign currency.I had that list in my hand. At the top it reads: 'Confiscated works, internationallysalable....The German officials want to sell these pictures (more than 500) en bloc for1 million Reichsmark.. .It is unbelievable that anyone in Switzerland, or anywhere else,would get involved in such a deal, ...Consequently it would be only reasonable todivide the'mass' into interest areas, and it is this avenue which Kl. wants toexplore....To make it brief and clear: I have culled from the list those names, or works,which might be of interest to you....Now I have the wholly neutral task of informingyou of these matters and asking you to give me your reaction in writing as soon aspossible, so that I can take your letter to Dr. KI. Personally, I believe that oneshouldn't help transform works of art into armaments--and that, after all, would be theend result. But that .is my own opinion, and it needn't bother anyone. I have said asmuch to Dr. Kl. ...Neither your name nor mini! ought to be mentioned in this matter,should the Foundation have any interest in these pictures...The matter is furthercomplicated by the fact that the pictures in question are located in certain Germanmuseum cities, and would have to be inspected there, except for those known by sight,like the Mares. That demands a wholly nonpartisan and neutral go-between. ,,46

Rebay and Guggenheim acted quickly on Nebel's proposal, purchasing six paintings

by Kandinsky (lhree SOIlJld'i, 1926, f-ctlltAcape lI'i/11 a FeIC/OJ)' ('himJley, 1910, Hlue

MOlln/ain, 1908-9, Several Circles. 1926, l-andKapl! with Rolling Hills, 1910, Calm No. 357,

1926) and one Delaunay (Sainl-Se\Ier;n No.3, 1909-10) in February 1939 Guggenheim had

already purchased one Kandinsky painting, S'/Ildyfor Landscape wi/h {ower, 1908, from

Gutekunst & Klipstein in 1938,47 but it was probably due to the close relationship between

I;) Rebay and Nebel (who Guggenheim and the curator were reportedly helping to support with

financial assistance in Switzerland), that Dr. August Klipstein approached the New York

buyers through the exiled artist rather than on his own.

A significant group ofarchival records, including correspondence between Rebay, a

variety of representatives for Guggenheim, and Klipstein, which I found scattered throughout

the object files at the Guggenheim during my research, allows us to follow the process of

purchase, Swiss bank payments, shipping, and insurance values of the works from

Switzerland (see the Guggenheim entries below for more detailed discl/ssion)·tX Intriguingly,

~" Letter from Otto Nebel to Hilla yon Reba~. August IlJ. I\)~X. Hilla \on Reba~ Arclm c. Solomon R.Guggcnheim Museum. reprinted in Lukach. IlJ8, pp 121-21. It IS quotcd 111 e~cerpts to c~plain the genesis ofthis sale1-. Barnctt. p r'"-1~ Vinan Endlcolt Bamclt. a fonncr curator at thc museulll and a renowned K,UldinsK\ speCialist. wascnonnousl~ helpful m explaining the matenals !Iocated

15

through some confusion caused by Rebay not naming the artists whose works were being

purchased, details of a shipment ofother paintings by Otto Nebel in January 1939 are also

outlined in the documents. And instead of being bought by the Guggenheim Foundation, for

some reason the works were were purchased from Solomon R. Guggenheim's personal

accounts and only gifted to the museum in 1941. ft is also not quite clear if the 1000 SF

commission for the 20,000 SF sale went to Nebel or to Klipstein. 49

The story of the acquisition of these seven works is significant in bringing to light

key aspects of the transfer and sale of degenerate artworks from Germany through

Switzerland to the United States in the late 1930's, such as: 1) since both Klipstein and

Valentin approached Rebay with a sales proposal, it is clear that this plan was not just

organized with the Swiss dealer, but that the German government cast a wide net through

f9 dealers, including probably Buchholz, Gurlitt and the other German dealers authorized to

make foreign sales, 2) contrary to what is noted in Nebel's August 1938 letter, at least one of

the works sold by Klipstein in this group was not brought to Switzerland from Germany just

for this sale, but was already recorded as in the dealer's possession in February 1938, 3) the

role of Nebel working with Klipstein is confirmed through the papers but it would be

interesting to discover if they worked together to sell art to other American museums or

collectors, 4) the records determine the ships on which the paintings were brought to America

and the date of their arrival, 5) records of payment to Klipstein' s Kantonal Bank account

verify routes of payment for looted art, and finally, 6) is it possible that the idea of selling a

relatively small group. of only 125, modem works in June 1939 at Galerie Fischer in Lucerne

was born ofKlipstein's proposal to "divide the 'mass' into interest areas" as Nebel noted,

G...l rather than following the government's idea of selling the "leftovers" en bloc for foreign

currency?

It would seem that the key to answering many of these questions is Hildebrand Gurlitt,

whose name does not appear in the Guggenheim Museum tiles but who Anja Heuss and

Andreas Huneke have noted was the conduit from Germany to Klipstein for the works in this

sale. Hopefully, the research done by them can close the circle of information about this

undertaking. Also, Gustav Knauer's name appears on many of the labels on the works. Was

he also involved in this transfer'>

After the war, Berlin emigre dealer Karl Nierendorf, moved from '\ew York to Zurich,

and according to Joan Lukach, in her study of Hilla Rebay, "Apparently. Rebay and

Nierendorf had come to an agreement whereby she placed funds in a S\\ i55 bank which he

II TIus IS ,m Interesting Issue--L( appears thaI even Guggenhell1l s finam:lul <Uld ad.lllilUstrame people were quite

16

was to use partly to acquire paintings and partly to give assistance to her family. ,,50 Through

this, the role of Switzerland as a transit site for Guggenheim acquisitions continued in the

postwar era. Unfortunately, the Nierendorf sales to the museum were beyond the framework

of this research, although they should be pursued later as a likely source for information. 5I

In 1979, the Guggenheim acquired Emil Nolde's Young Horses, 1916, oil on canvas,

as a gift from collector Donald Karshan. The painting, which had been confiscated from the

Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 1937 and was shown in the Degenerate Art Exhibition in 1937,

did not resurface again until 1959, when it was includedin a show in Caracas, Venezuela. 52

The path that took the work from the Berlin museum to the New York museum is unusual,

and the story provides a fascinating tale about the role of Switzerland as a repository for

artworks during the war, whether pieces from Jewish collections or of undetermined

@l provenance.

Karl Buchholz, listed in the files for this painting as "Karl Buchholz Gallery, Berlin

and Bogota, 1937" was apparently authorized to sell the work for foreign currency.

According to research done by Vivian Barnett at the time of the acquisition of the painting by

the Guggenheim, "The picture has remained in the same family since the late 1930s. It was

purchased from Karl Buchholz for $2,000 by Francisca Tugendhat de Igler (Mrs. Boersner's

mother). According to Rachel Adler the Tugendhats were a wealthy Jewish family in the

textile business in Prague." .For many years the painting was kept in Switzerland....The

Boersner's... have more documentation on the picture in a vault in Boston 1,5.l It is unclear

where the collector, about whom one wonders if she was a relative of the progressive

Tugendhat family who built the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe masterpiece in Brno, was living

cr,) when she purchased this painting, and the details of where it \vas kept in Switzerland and how

long it remained there before being brought to South America are unknown.

Research for this study uncovered additional examples in American museums of

artworks with unclarified provenance which were known to have been kept in Switzerland or

sold there by dealers during or immediately after the war. Some of these works, from private

collections rather than stemming from European museum holdings, may have been

confiscated or relinquished through forced sales. This has not yet, however, been

conclusively determined and it may be that some are examples of objects quite simply owned

by Swiss collectors who decided to sell them during or after the war.

sure. It says K.lipstein on some papers. but the indications are that tht: COl1unissiOI1 i\Clli to \cbd.;" Lukach. p. 2·m;; Niercndorf s influence is also to be found in llIan~ of the other museum collections [ fCnewed for this study.;2 See Section II for more inform.lllonq Memo from Vinan Barnett. September II. 1979. 111 object file

17

Lyonel Feininger's Bathers and Sailing BOOIS, 1912, oil on canvas, acquired in 1954

by the Busch-Reisinger from the Herbert Tannenbaum Galleries in New York, came from an

unnamed private collection in Switzerland and resurfaced along with two other Feiningers,

two GericauIts, and a work by Gleizes in an exhibition of the colIection of F.R. Schon in

Toronto in 1949.54 The identity of Schon, and a determination of whether or not he was the,

same person as the unnamed Swiss collector, have not been confirmed. The collection of the

Art Institute of Chicago includes a 19th century oil on panel by Adolphe-Joseph Thomas

Monticelli, Persons in Louis XV Costumes, which came from the collection of Julius Schmits

in Elberfeld, and was place'd on long-term loan to the Basel Kunstmuseum during 1939-1953.

In 1975, Wildenstein Gallery in London sold it to collector John W. Clarke of Chicago, from

which it was gifted to the Art Institute in 1987. It is not known if Julius Schmits and his wife

were Jewish and escaped from Elberfeld to Switzerland in 1939 with their painting, or if they

were Germans who simply had the foresight to send art to Basel for safekeeping during the

war. Curiously, the Basel museum has not confirmed this 14 year loan. Between 1956, when

the work was exhibited in Caracas, and 1975, when Wildenstein sold it to Clarke, there is a

gap in any location for the piece.

Maurice Wertheim, who had purchased the famous van Gogh Self-Portrait at the

Lucerne auction, also purchased a number of works from Wildenstein before, during and after

the Second World War. These included another van Gogh, as well as works by Constantin

Guys, Renoir, and a well-known Impressionist work by Claude Monet, 17u: Clare Sainl­

Lazare: Arrival ofa Train, 1877. In exhibitions such as I,e peinlllrefrancaise dll XlXe siecle

en Suisse, held in Paris in 1938, a collector named Emile Staub-Terlinden, ofMannedorf,

Switzerland, was cited as the owner of the work. 55 How it came to the hands of Wildenstein

in June 1945, where Wertheim purchased it, remains a mystery.

Four years later in 1949, when Wertheim decided to purchase another French 19th

century work from Cesar Mange de Hauke, he had his lawyer inquire of de Hauke's associate

Justin Thannhauser if de Hauke really had title to the piece. When de Hauke and

Thannhauser gave contradictory answers, Wertheim decided to purchase the work anyway.

His lawyer noted, "Mr. Wertheim made the remark that he is aware of the fact that the took a

chance with regard to the title of this picture, but that in view of the information obtained

-I See a list in the obJect file that \\ as sent by the Art Gallei) or Ontario in response to J rlXiuest for infonnationb~ the Busch-Reismger--tlThe schon and Landmann Exhibition" Unfortunately. nothmg more about the lendersto this sho\\ which took place in February-March Ill,.!). is known." Sarah K.i~mo\sky of the Fogg Art Museum provided imaluable assistance In the srud) of thIS museum'sholdings She hopes to find out more about Staub-Terlinden and clarify the line of proycnancc

18

from Thannhauser, the risk involved is rather remote. ,,56 Having asked for ownership

clarification in the one purchase, it is likely that Wertheim would also have asked for clear

title in the case of the Monet as well. Without documentation in the Wertheim papers and

without forthcoming information from Wildenstein, however, this cannot be proved.

The path of one artwork, an Edgar Degas pastel monotype, Land"cape with

Smokestacks, ca. 1890-93, from an important Dutch Jewish collection, through Paris in 1939,

through Switzerland between 1941-47, to New York in 1951 to a private collection in

Chicago and finally the Art Institute of Chicago collection in 1998, reveals in eloquent and

tragic fashion the vagaries of fate for artworks from Jewish private collections during the

National Socialist era. The subject of a complicated claims process during the ]ast decade

between the family of the 1930's Jewish owners of the work and the private collector who

(w bought the work it in 1987, this pastel has become well-known not only for its superb artistic

merit, but also for being one of the first of the recent precedent-setting restitution cases in

which an American museum was involved. 57 In 1932, the Degas was sold by Max Silberberg,

the Breslau Jewish collector, to a Dutch dealer from whom another Jewish family, the

Friedrich Gutmanns of the Netherlands, purchased it soon thereafter. In 1939, the Gutmanns

sent the work to dealer Paul Graupe in Paris, and during the war it was held in the Wacker­

Bondy warehouse and in Graupe's premises on Place Vendome. Friedrich and Louise

Gutmann lost their lives in the concentration camps, and despite intensive efforts by

numerous experts during the 1990's to clarify the claim and definitively determine how the

Degas got from Graupe in Paris to Hans Wendland and Hans Fritz Fankfauser in Basel by

1947, the exact details have never been satisfactorily reconstructed.

fD It is not known if Wendland, an influential German art dealer known for working

closely with the Nazis, purchased the work from Graupe, and if so, whether the purchase took

place in Paris or in Switzerland (where Graupe traveled on the way towards his emigration

from Europe). The work may have been confiscated along with other Gutmann pieces by the

ERR, or perhaps Wendland, who involved in many wartime transfers of looted and

confiscated art, received the piece in an unofficial deal. Wendland, working from Switzerland

and Paris, and Hans Fritz Fankhauser, a Basel silk merchant58 related by marriage to

Wendland, were involved in extensive dubious dealings. Fankhauser apparently helped to

," Maureen Goggin and \-Valter V. Robinson. "Murk) histories cloud some local art." 80ston Sunday Globe(No\'ember 9. 1997): B12.,- TItis slOry has been published in lIumerous articles and in slllTUnary in Hector Feliciano. The Lost Museum.Ne\\ York Basic Books. 19<)7 For the purposes of this stud~. the museulll's lawyers alIo\\cd me to readexpertlscs and confidential infonnation about the case 'The Circumstances were not at all as clear as the imagelhad of tJus from published accounts

19

finance Wendland, loaning him money and taking art as repayment, and after the war,

Wendland sent a part of his property to Fankhauser. The Degas remained in Switzerland,

where it appeared in WendlandlFankhauser's hands in 1947, until New York collector Emile

Wolf purchased it in 1951 and brought it to the United States.

Another masterpiece in the Art Institute Collection, Francisco de Zurbanin' s

Crucifixion, oil on canvas, also traveled from Switzerland to the United States through the

hands ofWendland and Fankhauser. This work was not necessarily looted or confiscated in

the 20th century (it had bt:(en looted by Napolean' s French troops in 1807), and was housed in

several theological seminaries until approximately 1950 and thereafter lent by a new owner to

the Basel Kunsthmuseum in the early 1950's, yet the correspondence regarding its sale

exposes the complications of Fankhauser and Wendland's dealings. Despite a curious opacity

in providing clear information about if Wendland, Fankhauser, or a third party owned the

work (and which files show the museum repeatedly trying to clarify), payment went to

Fankhauser's account at the Schweizerischer Bankverein in Basel. 59

According to information provided by Anja Heuss, 1 also searched the current and de­

accessioned works in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago for Aristide Maillol's 1he

]\vo Sisters, 1899, a bronze sculpture which had been in Alfred Flechtheim' s collection

earlier in the 1930's, was in Switzerland before 1939 and came to the Cnited States in

dramatic circumstances along with a group of other al1works for saleM! After being sold to

Curt Valentin for $150, it supposedly was acquired by the Chicago museum. However, there

is no record that it was sold to the Art Institute. Although it may have gone through the hands

of a Chicago collector (occasionally the museum accepted shipments for collectors) at one

time, I located the work no longer in the United States but rather in Paris at the Fondation

Dina Vierny, Musee Maillol. 61

Efforts to locate works pertinent to this study at the Mary and Leigh Block Musuem of

Art at Northwestern University also yielded no definitive results. The works that had been

targeted for research proved to have been loans that were no longer at the institution, and

although the museum has great strength in German Impressionist and Expressionist art in the

permanent collection, due to the fact that the holdings in these fields are limited to woodcuts,

;~ See. "Hans Fritz Fankhauser Obituary" Basel National·ZeituDg (December 12. !966).;) Tlus matcrial is rele"ant for understanding Fankhauser and Wendland. howc\·cr. the museum is in the processof researching tltis matter themsel\es and has requested tlmt the S\\iss ConU11ission 1IOt publish an~1hing aboutthe Zurbaran just ~ ct without consulting Martha WoltT. Curator of European Paintings at the Art Institute.", See An.la Heuss notes for furthcr infomlation"! Ursel Berber and Jorg Zutter. Aristidc Maillot Lausanne Flammanon and \lusee des Bcau:\-Arts deLausaImc. (need date). no. 31. pigS. ilL

20

etchings and lithographs, it was difficult, as it always is in the media of prints, to determine

provenance conclusively.

Overall, as this study has tried to make more visible, the role of Switzerland in the

history of American art collecting from the late 1930's to the early 1950's was profound and

multi-faceted. In a letter from Curt Valentin to collector-dealer Galka Scheyer in California

on December 20, 1939, the German emigre dealer in New York noted, "By the way, it is not

too difficult to get pictures from Europe. I received shipments from Switzerland. from France,

from England and even from Klee himself ,,62 The order in which Valentin named the

countries from which he received shipments is revealing, with Switzerland heading the list.

This was probably an accurate reflection of the importance ofthis neutral country as a site for

transfer of modem, or degenerate, art from Europe to America during the National Socialist

~) and Second World War eras. Yet, for the purposes of this study, it was Otto Nebel, writing

from Switzerland to Hilla Rebay on August 19, 1938, and proposing purchase of confiscated

artworks from German museums for the Guggenheim Foundation, who asked the question

most relevant over sixty years later. He mused, "In any case, it is important to know where

history is tending in questions of art, and to know what historic mission we shall have to

fulfill abroad in preserving and promoting the new art." 63

,>~ Letter. Curt Valentin to Galka Scheyer. December 20. llJ39. Norton Simon Museu1l1 of .....rt. Blue Four GalkaSche~ er Archi\c. quotcd in: Barnctt. p. 281.(,3 Lettcr. ~ebclto Rebay. August IlJ. 1938. Hilla \on Rebay Archi\c. Solomon R Gug.g.enhcim Museum.

21