Opinion One man’s garbage

Hildebrand’s career at the King Albert Museum lasted only five years. While he promoted the best in modern art and design,kept in touch with the cutting-edge artists of the time and turned the museum into an active,profit-making institution,the old-school patrons of Zwickau did not appreciate his contemporary tendencies. His Jewish roots may have also been investigated and his employment was terminated in 1930.

Hildebrand established a new career and fathered two children in his new home — Hamburg. His career there lasted only three years. He was forced to leave his job as curator and director at the art association of the city in 1933,when Adolf Hitler came to power.

One must pause here and reflect on the Third Reich’s double standards towards art collecting in the 1930s. Hermann Goering and most of the Nazi elite considered themselves connoisseurs of high art. They horded sculptures,paintings and tapestries of the late medieval and renaissance styles,which they looted from private Jewish collections,first in Germany and later in the other countries occupied by them. Hitler tended toward amassing,through violent methods,19th century academic paintings which cultivated the morals of blut und boden (blood and soil). The blood of the people and the soil of the country were the two central premises of the Third Reich’s doctrine. Such themes in paintings and sculpture explored the relationship between the Aryan German people and the land they occupied and cultivated.

German modernist art of the early 20th century was shunned and labelled entartete kunst (degenerate art),a term coined by the regime to describe semi-abstract or expressive work. An exhibition titled “Degenerate Art” was organised in Munich in 1937. It travelled throughout Germany in order to warn people against the danger stemming from the “wrong” kind of art. The outcome of the regime’s negative attitude toward modern art was that many paintings,works on paper and sculptures were intended to be burned — much like banned books — in huge bonfires. It was the minister of propaganda,Joseph Goebbels,who recognised them as potential sources of income for the state coffers and wrote,in his diary,how he hoped to make some money from “this garbage”.

But how could one be seen to be profiting from what the government labelled as garbage? Enter Hildebrand Gurlitt.

Hildebrand,like other museum professionals-turned-dealers,was known for his contacts overseas and was considered a good conduit to sell to collectors and interested parties in the West. Along with other similar figures in the art world,he took part in purging the state galleries between 1937 and 1941 from the so-called degenerate art. The works taken from these collections were sold in western Europe (before the Nazi occupation) and the US. Importantly,the art dealers were also allowed to acquire pieces for themselves at shockingly low prices — this was the bonus that incentivised them to participate. When Paris came under Nazi control in the summer of 1940,the same method was applied to major Jewish collectors and gallerists as well as museums. Hildebrand himself moved to Paris and lived there between 1941 and 1945. He bought and sold art,and personally looted Jewish properties. When the war ended,Hildebrand claimed that he was himself a victim of Nazi persecution due to his maternal Jewish roots,and thus escaped punishment.

Let’s fast forward to today. While we will probably never know why Hildebrand did what he did,we do know that the 1,403 works of art found in his son’s flat were,in all probability,acquired through dubious means. The need for thorough research into the provenance of each and every piece is essential in order to have them returned to their rightful owners. But fair and honest results cannot be obtained under pressure or constant interference — let the professionals do their job and with time,the truth will certainly come out.

Shlomit Steinberg

The writer is Hans Dichand Curator of European Art at The Israel Museum,Jerusalem