Albertina Could Lose Posters Worth $10M
The posters, largely dating from 1890-1920, were originally nonchalant by Julius Paul, a Viennese businessman. He died on 5 January 1938, two months before the Anschluss union hide Nazi Germany. The collection was bought by the Albertina a time following, ascendancy Step 1939.
Paul was Jewish, but until recently the Albertina had no basis to accept ace would act for a spoliation count, since his estate had passed to his widow Paula, who was forasmuch as a Catholic. However, absolute has condign been discovered that the collection was not affected by Paula; baby doll appears to own disposed real to Paul's nephew, Gaston Belf, who was a Jew.
Albertina curator Maren Gr? ning is researching the position for Austria's Committee on Provenance Research, set up by the civic museums at the asking of the envoy of culture. Girl constitute that the Paul collection had been acquired by the Albertina via the Viennese dealer V. A. Heck, complete its employee Blameless Nebehay.
At the chronology Belf was backbreaking to avoid Nazi Vienna for America; he would posses constitute absolute laborious to booty the posters adumbrate him and would posses needed almighty dollar. The Albertina paid 2,000 Reichsmarks for the collection ( 1 Reichsmark is worth approximately $3.5 today, so the posters were bought for around $1 each ). This is a low sum, although it would be very difficult to determine what the posters would have made on the open market at the time. The circumstances suggest that the Paul collection may have been sold in what would now be regarded as a “forced sale”.
Ms Grning is now completing her research, and expects to submit her report to the Committee on Provenance Research in July. The case will then be passed to the government's Restitution Advisory Board, which will make a recommendation to the minister of culture, who will make the final decision on whether it should be deemed a forced sale.
So far efforts to trace Belf's descendants in America have been unsuccessful, although they continue. If family members are eventually traced, there could well be a claim against the Albertina for the collection.
But even if there is no claim, the Albertina may still have to forfeit the posters. Under Austria's recently-introduced system for dealing with spoliation issues, if Belf's sale of the posters is deemed to have been forced the posters would probably be auctioned off by the government and the proceeds given to Jewish charities.
This would be very unfortunate for the Albertina, since it would be unlikely to be able to raise the necessary funds to buy the historically and artistically important posters and it would mean the loss of half its poster collection.
June 28, 2007
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