Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy | |
|---|---|
| Born | Template:Birth date Germany |
| Died | May 10, 1935 (aged 59) |
| Occupation(s) | Financier, art collector |
| Known for | Art collection including works by Picasso and Van Gogh; subject of Nazi-era persecution and art restitution claims |
Paul Robert Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (14 November 1875 – 10 May 1935) was a German-Jewish financier and collector of fine art. The Nazi regime's persecution of his family has resulted in numerous legal claims for the restitution of artworks.
Life
As the firstborn son of banker Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1846–1909) and Marie Warschauer (1855–1906), who was the granddaughter of Alexander Mendelssohn, Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy pursued brief academic studies at Balliol College, Oxford, followed by law at universities in Bonn and Berlin. In early 1902, he became a partner in the family banking firm Mendelssohn & Co.. Shortly thereafter, he wed Charlotte (Lotte) Reichenheim, later recognized as Lotte von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. The marriage produced no offspring. After their separation, he remarried Elsa Lucy Emmy Lolo von Lavergne-Péguilhen.
Art collection
Together with his first wife Lotte, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy curated an exceptional art collection featuring prominent works by Pablo Picasso, including Boy with Horse and Le Moulin de la Galette, which were exhibited in their urban residence at Alsenstrasse 3/3a and their estate Schloss Börnicke. This collection also encompassed significant paintings by Vincent van Gogh, such as Sunflowers and Mutter Roulin im Profil, alongside masterpieces by Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Georges Braque, Henri Rousseau, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, André Derain, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Nazi persecution
Following the Nazi ascension to power in 1933, von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy encountered severe discrimination due to his Jewish heritage. The regime's policies sought to marginalize, financially ruin, and confiscate assets from Jewish families, directly affecting the Mendelssohn-Bartholdy lineage and culminating in the Aryanisation of their banking enterprise, Mendelssohn & Co.
Disputes have arisen regarding the circumstances under which Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and his descendants parted with artworks amidst these racially motivated laws that compelled exile and asset forfeiture. Beginning in 2008, members of the Mendelssohn family initiated restitution claims for these cultural properties, represented publicly by Julius H. Schoeps. Notable resolutions include:
- The return of Picasso's Boy Leading a Horse through an agreement with the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
- Settlement concerning Picasso's Le Moulin de la Galette with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
- Resolution over Picasso's Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto involving the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation.
- Restitution of Picasso's Head of a Woman by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
Conversely, the Bavarian State Painting Collections declined to restitute Picasso's Madame Soler, which they acquired from Justin Thannhauser in 1964 despite claims filed by the Mendelssohn heirs.
Another contested piece is Picasso's Boy with a Pipe, which was sold by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's widow to Walter Feilchenfeldt in Zürich; Feilchenfeldt subsequently sold it to John Hay Whitney in 1950.
External links
- Schoeps v. Museum of Modern Art, 594 F. Supp. 2d 461 (S.D.N.Y. 2009)
- Julius H. Schoeps v. The Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation
- Schoeps v Free State of Bavaria
Literature
- Hans-Günther Klein: Notes on Ernst and Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Published in Mendelssohn-Studien, Volume 11, 1999, pages 207–215.
- Thomas Lackmann: The Fortune of the Mendelssohns – The History of a German Family. Aufbau, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-351-02600-5.
- Julius H. Schoeps: Expropriated by the Federal Republic of Germany: The Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Case: A Documentation. Philo, Bodenheim 1997 (Publication of the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies; University of Potsdam), ISBN 3825700453.
- Official Website of the Gesellschaft der Freunde