Plundered Art. Where Is It Now?
Almost 70 years have passed since Hitler and the Nazis looted and confiscated art from museums and Jewish collectors in German-occupied countries.
The war is over but the bizarre and tragic story continues as the heirs of the original owners attempt to reclaim their artwork from world famous museums and private collectors.
Adamant and inflexible, these museums and collectors believe they acquired the works legitimately. So we have a dilemma…a moral and legal dilemma.
Jewish families and museums were forced to “sell” their masterpieces at rock bottom prices to Nazi officials and Nazi art dealers, many times in exchange for their lives. Often the art was brazenly stolen from the owners.
Decades later and passing through many hands, these same masterpieces turn up for sale. Museums or collectors purchase them either naively or purposely ignore their history (provenance).
Portrait of Wally, 1912
Egon Schiele
1939 Nazi art dealers remove “Wally” from Jewish family of Lea Bondi Jaray under duress.
1940 “Wally” sold to Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria.
2010 After years of litigation, Leopold Museum pays Bondi $19 million to surrender all claims to painting.
2014 “Wally” hangs legally in Leopold Museum.
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Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer I, 1907
Gustav Klimt
1939 Painting “appropriated” by Nazis from The Bloch-Bauer family and placed in museums in Austria.
1997-2010 Court battle between state of Austria and heirs of Bloch-Bauer. Bloch-Bauer family determined rightful owners and “Adele” returned to family.
2012 Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer sold by heirs to Ronald Lauder for $135 million.
2014 Painting hanging in Lauder’s Neue Gallery, New York.
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Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep, 1886
Camille Pissarro
1940 Painting seized by Nazis from Meyer family in Paris.
1933-1956 Painting sold and resold to different collectors.
1956 “Shepherdess” bought by oilman Aaron Weitzenhoffer and wife, Clara.
2000 Bequeathed to Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, at death of Clara.
2013 Heirs of Meyer family sue University of Oklahoma for return of “Shepherdess.”
2014 Litigation expected to continue for years.
Watch this astonishing video of Nazi art plundering! Click here if unable to view the video.
Andy Warhol…Why is He an Important Artist?
Marilyn Monroe, 1962
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol painted icons.
Jackie, 1964
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol painted history.
Love him or hate him, Andy Warhol was just the latest in the long line of artists documenting our times.
Portrait of George Washington, 1797
Gilbert Stuart
Jimmy Carter, 1976 and Richard Nixon, 1972
Andy Warhol
Warhol presents these images in wild colors. They are silk-screened, an ancient method of print-making using stencils and ink on silk. Many of his works are huge in size.
Derrick Cartwright, Ph.D., states, “What I think is most essential about Warhol was his canniness in identifying images from the media, repeating them and recirculating them as art before many others recognized them as history.”
The colors, the odd blurring of lines, the uncompromising images startle us.
We, the viewers, first see Andy Warhol’s art. Then we experience history, our own history.
Watch Andy Warhol in Action! Click here if unable to view the video.
Mary is shocked, scared and full of wonder
Shocked, Scared and Full of Wonder, 2013
IPhone Painting, Kirby Kendrick
And the angel, Gabriel, said to Mary, “Do not be afraid, for you shall bear a son and name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called The Son of the Most High.”
Merry Christmas!
World’s Largest Portrait of…
Nelson Mandela Portrait, 14 x 14', 2013
Paul Blomkamp
Johannesburg – Nelson Mandela is lilac, pulsing-pink, blue, and sandy tan. He is a collection of energy, a precise assembly of meticulously measured stripes.
This describes the gigantic portrait, 14 feet high, honoring “Tata,” or father, the term of endearment many South Africans use for Nelson Mandela.
Painted by South African artist Paul Blomkamp, this portrait deals with the anatomy of energy – a celebration of energized lines, shapes and spaces.
“For Tata’s portrait I turned to physics books to understand the interactions of the thousands of atoms that make up an individual,” Blomkamp says. “Each human being is made up of about 67 trillion unique shooting bits of energy. In this dance of energy is intelligence, compassion and love.”
Thousands of vivid stripes suggest these shooting tracks of energy and the qualities the world celebrates in Nelson Mandela.
Would YOU buy this painting?
Three Studies of Lucien Freud, 1969
Francis Bacon
Someone did! A member of the royal family of Qatar, Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad al-Thani, dubbed the most powerful woman in art, reportedly bought Three Studies of Lucian Freud.
The painting sold for $142 million dollars.
Artist Francis Bacon was born in Ireland but lived his life in England. He had a dreadful childhood at the hands of a cruel father. He lived through the grisly carnage of WWI and WWII and seems to have been driven mad by the temptations and horrors of the 20th century.
No wonder his brush creates horrific wounds and knotted masses of flesh. No wonder he paints distorted human figures, grappling couples, screaming popes, and hysterical businessmen in suits. They leer at us from the canvas, seeming to say, “Look what human kind has done to itself.”
Last Tango in Paris, 1964
Francis Bacon
But hold on…Bacon paints as if he were an old master from 400 years ago. His paintings drip with opulent color and a velvet magnificence. The pain and brutality that punches through them heightens their strange beauty.
The question remains: Is that strange beauty enough for you to buy this painting?
Visit Francis Bacon’s studio, unbelievable! Click here to view the video.