“A heartbreaking and enthralling story of the brutal and mindless Nazi destruction of a singularly cultivated caste of rich German and Austrian Jews and the pillage of their great art collections: a world that was lost and could never be recreated.” ~ Louis Begley

 

“The book is meticulously researched, brilliantly and dispassionately written, and is in all likelihood a game changer in the world of art, art provenance, and art restitution that will resound for years to come. ~ ForeWord

 

 

Beginning in 1933, Jewish collectors were under extraordinary pressure from German officials to surrender their treasures—paintings, manuscripts, musical instruments, and all manner of objets d'art. Collectors reluctantly agreed to one-sided sales of masterpieces at ludicrously low prices in exchange for a precious exit permit for themselves or a member of their family. Here, in the result of years of meticulous archival research, authors Melissa Müller and Monika Tatzkow trace the dispersal of these great collections and follow the fates of the collectors, those who were lucky enough to secure a visa to safe country as well as the many who died in Auschwitz or other camps.

 

Inevitably, their collections were confiscated by high-ranking German officials, sold by Nazi party member art dealers, or seized for state collections. Following the war Allied officials made little effort to retrieve these lost paintings, concentrating their resources on the return of works of art removed from museums, churches, and palaces. But the heirs of the collectors puprsued the return of their patrimony, and over the past twenty years have won a number of key court decisions in Europe and the United States leading to the restitution of some of the lost art. For every victory, such as the triumphant return to the Bloch-Bauer heirs of their family’s confiscated Klimts, there are also defeats and obstinate stonewalling by museums and collectors, who insist that the art in their collections was legally acquired in good faith. The stories of the clashes between the heirs determined to retrieve their inheritance and the current owners are told in a lively text written in the manner of the legal thrillers of Scott Turow or the sensational memoirs of Thomas Hoving.

 

Among the works of art featured are:

 

Klimt: Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (returned to the Bloch-Bauer heirs, now collection Ronald S. Lauder)

Pissarro: Rue Saint-Honoré, après-midi, effet de la pluie (ex-collection Lily Cassirer, currently collection Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid)

Kandinsky: Improvisation No. 10 (ex-collection Sophie Lissitzky-Kuppers)

Manet: The Sultana (ex-collection Max Silberberg, currently Bürle Collection, Zurich)

Monet: The Garden Path (ex-collection Eleonora and Francesco von Mendelssohn)