Hugo Nathan
Hugo Nathan | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1861 |
| Died | 1921 |
| Occupation(s) | Banker, art collector |
| Known for | Director at Deutsche Bank, extensive art collection including Van Gogh's The Diggers |
Hugo Nathan (1861–1921) was a German banker of Jewish descent and an avid art collector.
Life
Nathan held a position as a director at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt am Main. He was married to Martha Adrianna Nathan (1874–1958). After his passing in 1921, his vast art collection was inherited by his widow.
Art Collection
The assortment of artworks owned by Nathan included pieces from Dutch, German, and Swiss artists such as Josef Israels, Max Liebermann, Wilhelm Trübner, Max Slevogt, and Ferdinand Hodler. Notably, he purchased Van Gogh's The Diggers in 1912. In 1913, he contributed works to the Kunstverein exhibition titled Frankfurter Kunstschatze.
Family and Nazi persecution
Following the Nazis' ascent to power in 1933, Martha Nathan endured persecution due to her Jewish background. She escaped to Paris in 1937, where she obtained French citizenship, and briefly returned to Germany in 1938 to liquidate property assets. Under duress from the Nazi regime, six paintings still in her residence were handed over to the Staedel Art Institute. Around 1939, she moved to Switzerland. After Paris fell under Nazi control in 1940, artworks stored there were confiscated, though some pieces were safeguarded in Switzerland. The circumstances surrounding the sale and transfer of these paintings have led to legal challenges.
Postwar claims for restitution
In May 2004, an heir of Nathan reached out to the Detroit Institute of Arts upon discovering Van Gogh's The Diggers listed on their website. The museum contended that the claim was barred by Michigan’s three-year statute of limitations, arguing that the claim originated in 1938 when Nathan sold the paintings to European art dealers. Additionally, Nathan's heirs sought restitution of a Gauguin painting from the Toledo Museum of Art, which responded by initiating legal action against them.
By 2013, legal authorities Simon J. Frankel and Ethan Forrest supported museums’ reliance on declaratory judgments and statute of limitations defenses in cases involving restitution claims. Nevertheless, in 2015 the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) criticized such procedural measures, citing the Nathan case as an instance where museums avoided addressing Holocaust-era art claims substantively. WJRO’s report also noted similar defensive strategies employed by prominent U.S. institutions including the Toledo Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.
The descendants of Hugo and Martha Nathan have listed 116 artworks lost due to Nazi persecution on the German Lost Art Foundation database.
In 2022, a settlement was finalized concerning Gustav Courbet’s La Pauvresse de Village (also known as Die Dorfarme or La Femme à la chèvre ou La Fagotière), which had been consigned by Justin K. Thannhauser and sold in 1947. This agreement exemplifies ongoing initiatives aimed at resolving restitution claims for art displaced during the Nazi period.
Lawsuits concerning Hugo and Martha Nathan's art collection
Toledo Museum of Art v Claude George Ullin, et al.