The Art Market’S Commitment Responsible RestitutionS at VA N HAM Alexander Kanoldt (1881–1939) Still Life with Guitar Oil on Canvas | 75 x 88 cm | Estimate: € 90,000 – 120,000 Modern Art Sale, November 28 and 29 Press commentary on successful restitutions The auction market is a quick business. The time from consignment to sale normally amounts to only a few weeks. Nevertheless, professionalism and precise research remain a top priority. In particular, a work’s history must be carefully examined because it is not uncommon to encounter works with murky provenances remaining from the Third Reich. During the Nazi regime, the property of numerous Jewish collectors and dealers was expropriated. Their artworks were either foreclosed or blatantly stolen. Entire collections were torn apart. Today, it is often difficult to trace where the objects landed and whether or not they still exist. In recent years, the public eye has frequently turned to VAN HAM and its work in successful restitutions, or the return of and compensation for the cultural property of Jewish families that were looted during the Nazi era. Currently, VAN HAM is working to clarify several cases. As soon as a consigned work shows signs of a problematic provenance, VAN HAM begins research by contacting well-known institutions such as the Art Loss Register and its coordination office in Magdeburg or the Holocaust Claims Processing Office, where lost, stolen, or missing art is documented. The fall sale will include several outstanding works once believed lost but now documented through the complex process of restitution. These works include paintings from the legendary collections of Ismar Littman, Amsterdam’s famous art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, and the art dealer Max Stern from the Rhineland, for which negotiations are not yet complete. A few years ago, an outstanding work by Alexander Kanoldt entitled “Stillleben mit Gitarre” (1926) was also restituted. The painting stemmed from the collection of Ismar Littman, a Jewish lawyer who owned over 300 paintings and 5,000 prints by artists such as Max Pechstein, Erich Heckel, Otto Müller and Alexander Kanoldt. Littman lived in Breslau and was celebrated as a patron of cultural life. After the Nazis gained political control, he was deprived of his art collection. Financially ruined and socially excommunicated, he tragically took his life in 1934. The painting by Kanoldt was acquired by the Stuttgart Gallery Association in 1935 and remained in the Stuttgart Staatsgalerie until 2008. The work was eventually restituted to the rightful heirs, who have now entrusted us with its sale. Jacques Goudstikker was perhaps the most important art dealer of his time. In May 1940, Goudstikker fled with his wife Dési and son Edward on the SS Graven for fear of persecution by the Nazis. He left his collection – at that time amounting to some 1,400 works – to his employees. During the journey, Goudstikker suffered a fatal, tragic fall. At the time of his death, he maintained a black, ring binder in which he inventoried all of his artworks. Dési Goudstikker saved the book, which has now being used to reconstruct the collection. Through an act of deception, Hermann Goering and his accomplice Alois Miedl confiscated all of Goudstikker’s assets, which they later sold to their own profit. After the war, nearly 300 of the paintings were returned to the Dutch state, which dealt with the works irresponsibly and did not return them to their rightful owner, Dési Goudstikker. Goudstikker litigated for years against the state but to no avail. The works were transferred to public collections, institutions, or sold. The work offered at VAN HAM, “Riverside with rapid” by Alaert van Everdingen, also belonged to the Goudstikker Collection. As further investigation by VAN HAM experts and outside research has revealed, Göring sold the painting to Miedl, who in turn had the work sold in December 1940 at the Hans W. Lange Auction House. With the agreement of Goudstikker’s daughterin law (now fighting for the restitution of the collection), VAN HAM will offer the painting along with two other works from Goudstikker’s collection this fall. VAN HAM contacted the Jewish heirs and their legal representations in order to clarify the claims for restitution and to reach a fair and equitable solution for all involved parties. Thanks to professional mediation, all respective parties could reach agreement over the restitution. Moreover, VAN HAM’s commitment to the open and transparent handling of looted art provided the rightful heirs with a much belated compensation. Both careful provenance research and targeted marketing will continue to ensure outstanding results for such works and allow all parties involved in the restitution to benefit.
INTERN Fall 2013
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