Galerie van Diemen

Galerie van Diemen was a commercial art gallery founded in 1918 in Berlin (Germany), and which had branches in The Hague, Amsterdam and New York.[1] Under the Nazis, the German branch was Aryanized and its Jewish owners forced into exile and murdered.[2]

History

Originally specializing in Dutch painting, the Van Diemen Gallery organized in 1922 the first major exhibition of Russian avant-garde art in Europe since 1917.[3] The gallery was located at Unter den Linden 41.

Directors Eduard Plietzsch (1919-1935) and Kurt Benedict (1923-1933) headed the branches van Diemen and Dr. Benedict & Co. Until 1929 these two galleries, together with Altkunst Antiquitätene and Dr Otto Burchard & Co. belonged to Albert Loeske's Margraf group before being inherited by its employees Jacob and Rosa Oppenheimer.[4]

Aryanization in 1933 in Nazi Germany

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, however, the Oppenheimer's were banned as Jews from managing the Margraf group,[5] which came under the control of a Nazi administrator named Bolko von Richthofen, "a zealous Nazi and close acquaintance of Herman Göring".[6]

The Berlin Galleries (van Diemen, Dr Benedict & Co., Dr Otto Burchard & Co and Altkunst Antiquitäten) were liquidated by the National Socialists in 1935 and the artworks auctioned off at the Paul Graupe auction house.[7]

Murder of Rosa Oppenheimer in the Holocaust

Rosa and Jacob Oppenheimer fled to France in 1933 as refugees. Jakob died in Nice in 1941 and Rosa was interned in the French Drancy concentration camp, then deported to Auschwitz where she perished on 2 November 1943.[8]

In 1935, the New York branch merged with the Lilienfeld Gallery, under its founder Karl Lilienfeld, who had immigrated from Germany to New York. It was called the van Diemen-Lilienfeld Gallery until the mid-1960s.[9]

Nazi-looted art and claims for restitution

Numerous claims for restitution have been filed in connection with the Nazi persecution Galerie Van Diemen, the Oppenheimers and the Margraf group. A few include:

  • National Gallery of Ireland: 9 October 2017: Restitution claims for three paintings, two by the heirs of Rosa and Jakob Oppenheimer of Berlin, owners of the Margraf group, and one by the heirs of Alfred Weinberger[10]
  • In 2000 the painting Bildnis der Marchesa Veronica Spinola Doria (Portrait of the Marchesa Veronica Spinola Doria )(1607-8) by Rubens which was in the museum's collection was claimed by a French legal firm on behalf of the community of heirs of Jacob and Rosa Oppenheimer.[11]
  • In 2009, Hearst Castle in San Simeon restituted three artworks to the Oppenheimer heirs.[12]

Notes and references
  1. "Galerie van Diemen & Co. active c. 1920 - 1960 Van Diemen & Co. , Van Diemen Gallery , Van Diemen-Margraf Gallery". www.nga.gov. National Gallery of Art. Archived from the original on 2021-03-29. Retrieved 2021-04-15. The Galerie van Diemen was first established in Berlin, c. 1918, with branches later opening in The Hague, Amsterdam and New York. The galleries were managed by Directors Eduard Plietzsch (from 1919-1935) and Kurt Benedict (from 1923-1933), who ran establishments under the names of van Diemen, Berlin, and Dr. Benedict & Co., Berlin, respectively. The establishments, as well as two other galleries, Altkunst Antiquitäten and Dr. Otto Burchard & Co., were under an umbrella organization, the Margraf Concern, owned by Albert Loeske until 1929, when it passed to long time employees Jacob and Rosa Oppenheimer. Initially specializing in Dutch painting, in 1922 the Galerie van Diemen organized the first important Russian Avant-Garde exhibition to be held in Europe since the 1917 Revolution. In 1935 the Berlin branches (van Diemen, Dr. Benedict & Co., Dr. Otto Burchard & Co.; Altkunst Antiquitäten) were liquidated by order of the Nazis, with sales organized by Graupe on 25 January and 26 April. The New York branch became associated at about that time with the Lilienfeld Gallery, originally established in Germany by Karl Lilienfeld (b. 1885) and was known until the mid-1960s under the name van Diemen-Lilienfeld
  2. "German Lost Art Foundation - Project finder - Provenienz Margraf & Co. (Galerie van Diemen, Altkunst, Dr. Otto Burchard)". www.kulturgutverluste.de. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  3. sisterMAG (2019-10-07). ""The First Russian Exhibition" in Berlin (1922)". sisterMAG. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  4. "Galerie van Diemen & Co. active c. 1920 - 1960 Van Diemen & Co. , Van Diemen Gallery , Van Diemen-Margraf Gallery". www.nga.gov. National Gallery of Art. Archived from the original on 2021-03-29. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  5. "Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections Object : A View of Florence / Allegory of Maffeo Barberini's Florentine Birth". www.philamuseum.org. Retrieved 2021-04-15. Altkunst Antiquitäten, the Berlin art gallery that owned the tapestry, was a subsidiary of Margraf and Co., a group of art dealerships run by Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer. In 1933, the Oppenheimers, who were Jewish, fled Germany to escape Nazi persecution and relocated to France. In their absence they were forced out of the management of Margraf and Co. and were forbidden by court order from conducting any legal transactions for the company. The Nazi regime appointed an Aryan administrator who was a close associate of Hermann Göring to dissolve the Margraf dealerships. The gallery stock, including this tapestry, was quickly sold off in a series of auctions held in Berlin in 1935 that are considered forced liquidation sales.
  6. "REPORT OF THE SPOLIATION ADVISORY PANEL IN RESPECT OF AN OIL PAINTING BY PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR, 'THE COAST AT CAGNES', NOW IN THE POSSESSION OF BRISTOL CITY COUNCIL" (PDF). On December 2nd, 1933 a Berlin Nazi Court banned the Oppenheimers from being directors of Margraf & Co. and Bolko von Richthofen, a zealous Nazi and close acquaintance of Herman Göring, was appointed administrator of the group.
  7. "Galerie van Diemen & Co. active c. 1920 - 1960 Van Diemen & Co. , Van Diemen Gallery , Van Diemen-Margraf Gallery". www.nga.gov. Archived from the original on 2021-03-29. Retrieved 2021-04-15. In 1935 the Berlin branches (van Diemen, Dr. Benedict & Co., Dr. Otto Burchard & Co.; Altkunst Antiquitäten) were liquidated by order of the Nazis, with sales organized by Graupe on 25 January and 26 April.
  8. "German Lost Art Foundation - Project finder - Provenienz Margraf & Co. (Galerie van Diemen, Altkunst, Dr. Otto Burchard)". www.kulturgutverluste.de. Retrieved 2021-04-15. Das jüdische Unternehmerpaar Jakob und Rosa Oppenheimer zählt zu den Verfolgten im Nationalsozialismus in Deutschland. Sie waren Ende März 1933 durch die Flucht nach Frankreich nur knapp ihrer Verhaftung entgangen. Jakob Oppenheimer verstarb 1941 in Nizza. Seine Frau wurde nach dem Einmarsch der deutschen Truppen in das Lager Drancy interniert, nach Auschwitz deportiert und dort 1943 ermordet. Rosa Beer blieb trotz der sich verschärfenden Lebensbedingungen für Juden in Berlin. Sie wurde nach Theresienstadt deportiert, wo sie 1943 ebenfalls ermordet wurde. Mit Datum der Deportation galt ihr Vermögen als an den Staat verfallen.
  9. "Van Diemen-Lilienfeld Galleries Archive. Collection Summary 1930 - 1970". library.nga.gov. Retrieved 2021-04-15. Dr. Karl Lilienfeld immigrated to New York from Germany in 1925 and founded his eponymous gallery there the same year. In November 1932 there was an announcement that Dr. Lilienfeld would "continue to conduct" the Lilienefeld Galleries at 21 East 57th Street and would also "act as general representative" for Van Diemen Galleries, New York. In 1935 the Van Diemen Galleries, Berlin headquarters were liquidated by the National Socialists (Nazis). Around 1936 the New York branch of Van Diemen Galleries became the Van Diemen-Lilienfeld Galleries with Dr. Lilienfeld the director of the merged venture. The gallery was recognized as the Van Diemen-Lilienfeld Galleries until the early 1960s.
  10. "9 October 2017: Restitution claims for three paintings, two by the heirs of Rosa and Jakob Oppenheimer of Berlin, owners of the Margraf group, and one by the heirs of Alfred Weinberger". www.lootedart.com. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  11. "Provenance Research: Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (State Art Gallery of Karlsruhe)". www.lootedart.com. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  12. "Family gets Nazi-stolen art back". www.lootedart.com. South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved 2021-04-15. BOYNTON BEACH, FL -- At 73, Peter Bloch's memories of his grandparents are faint. The Boynton Beach retiree last saw them in Germany in 1940, when he was 5 and they were about to be interned in a Nazi concentration camp. But Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer will be indelible in Bloch's mind today during ceremonies in Sacramento, Calif., when Italian Renaissance paintings that the Nazis looted from the couple prior to World War II are returned to his family. For decades the three works have hung on the walls of the state-run Hearst Castle in San Simeon.
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