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Hildebrand Gurlitt

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Hildebrand Gurlitt
Born(1895-09-15)September 15, 1895
Dresden, Germany
DiedNovember 9, 1956(1956-11-09) (aged 61)
Düsseldorf, West Germany
NationalityGerman
Occupation(s)Art dealer and historian
Known forArt dealer during the Nazi era
SpouseHelene Hanke
ChildrenCornelius Gurlitt
ParentCornelius Gurlitt
Relatives

Hildebrand Gurlitt (15 September 1895 – 9 November 1956) was a German art dealer and historian who traded in 'degenerate art' during the Nazi era.[1] In 2011, about 1,500 stolen and confiscated works (by Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso, among others) he had hidden were confiscated from his son.[2]

Early life

Gurlitt was born into an artistic family in Dresden in 1895. His father Cornelius Gurlitt was an architect and art historian, his brother Willibald a musicologist, and his nephew Wolfgang was an art dealer as well. His maternal grandmother was Jewish, which would initally prove problematic under the Nazis.[2][3]

Early career

Museum in Zwickau

After Gurlitt's graduation, he became the first director of the König Albert museum in Zwickau in 1925. One of the first exhibitions he organized at Zwickau was the October 1925 exhibition of Max Pechstein. Financially it was a success, but it generated a lot of hostility from local conservatives.[4] Later on he exhibited more contemporary art: in 1926 Käthe Kollwitz and Das junge Dresden, in 1927 Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and in 1928 Emil Nolde. A collection of his letters shows that he was well acquainted with modern German artists at the time.[5] In 1930 he was fired for exhibiting modern artists after a press campaign against him.[1][6]

In 1930 he moved to Hamburg where he worked as a private art dealer, having received a special dispensation from the authorities to continue dealing in art. He became the head of the Kunstverein until he was deposited by the Nazis in 1933.[7] In 1936 he was visited there by Samuel Beckett.[8]

Nazi era

While he had been fired for exhibiting 'degenerate art' he was still appointed as a dealer for the Führermuseum in Linz.

After being personally instructed by Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, he was employed by the Commission for the Exploitation of Degenerate Art with Karl Buchholz, Ferdinand Möller and Bernhard Boehmer to market confiscated and stolen works of art abroad. The dealers were instructed to sell these for foreign currency and make a good profit out of them, which they did not always report to the commission. It is estimated that at its height, he had established a personal trading collection above 1,500 pieces.[1][2]

Degenerate art was legally banned by the Nazis from entering Germany, and so once designated was held in what was called the Martyr's Room at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris, France. Much of noted impressionist and post-impressonist dealer Paul Rosenberg's professional and personal collection, were designated degenerate art by the Nazi's. Following Goebbels decree, Hermann Goering personally appointed in Paris a series of Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce approved dealers, including Gurlitt, to liquidate these art assets and then pass the funds to swell his personal art collection.[9]

Gurlitt used his position to sell art to domestic collectors, most notably to Bernhard Sprengel, whose collection forms the core of the Sprengel Museum in Hannover.[10] But as most of the looted degenerate art was sold onwards overseas via Switzerland, Rosenberg's collection was scattered across Europe. Today, some 70 of his paintings are missing, including: the large Picasso watercolor Naked Woman on the Beach, painted in Provence in 1923; seven works by Matisse; and the Portrait of Gabrielle Diot by Degas.[9]

Post-war

Under interrogation after capture, Gurlitt and his mother told US Army authorities that in the February 1945 fire bombing of Dresden, his entire collection had been destroyed at his home in Kaitzer Strasse. Assessed as a victim of Nazi persecution due to his Jewish heritage, he was released and continued trading art works until his death in a car crash in 1956.[2][3][11]

Looted art

Main article: 2011 Nazi loot discovery

In 2010 German customs officials at the German–Switzerland border found 9,000 euros in cash on his son Rolf Nikolaus Cornelius Gurlitt, which led to a search warrant in 2011 for his apartment in Schwabing, Munich. They found 1,500 artworks, with a present estimated worth of one billion Euros (approx. $1.35 billion). Presently being cataloged in a secure warehouse in Garching, 300 of the works were exhibited in the Degenerate Art Exhibition in 1937 in Munich. Cornelius Gurlitt sold The Lion Tamer, a painting by Max Beckmann at an auction in Cologne shortly before the collection was seized. Customs initially banned reporting on the raid, which only came to light in 2013.[12][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c Nicholas, Lynn H. (22 December 2009). The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. Random House LLC. p. 24. ISBN 9780307739728.
  2. ^ a b c d "Sensationeller Kunstschatz in München". Focus (in German). 3 November 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  3. ^ a b c Hall, Allan (3 November 2013). "Nazi art treasure trove valued at £1BILLION is found in shabby Munich apartment". Daily Mail. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  4. ^ Fulda, Bernhard; Soika, Aya (2012). Max Pechstein: The Rise and Fall of Expressionism. Walter de Gruyter. p. 258. ISBN 9783110282085.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "Kunstsammlungen Zwickau". Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  6. ^ "Städtisches Museum Zwickau". Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  7. ^ "The Kunstverein - History". Der Kunstverein. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  8. ^ Nixon, Mark, ed. (2011). Samuel Beckett's German Diaries 1936-1937. Continuum. p. 212. ISBN 9781441152589.
  9. ^ a b Feliciano, Hector (1998). "The Lost Museum". Bonjour Paris. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  10. ^ ""Entartete" Kunstgeschäfte". Der Standard (in German). 6 August 2008. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  11. ^ Mazzoni, Ira (3 November 2013). "Depot mit Nazi-Raubkunst in München". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  12. ^ Pontz, Zach (3 November 2013). "Artworks Worth $1.6 Billion, Stolen by Nazis, Discovered in German Apartment". the algemeiner. Retrieved 3 November 2013.

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