Great-nephew of original owner of $104m Picasso challenges 1949 sale (Q96581715)
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| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Great-nephew of original owner of $104m Picasso challenges 1949 sale |
newspaper article |
Statements
Great-nephew of original owner of $104m Picasso challenges 1949 sale (English)
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A descendant of the original owners of the $104 million Picasso that became the world's most expensive painting last month is consulting lawyers to establish how his family lost ownership of the masterpiece. Prof Julius H Schoeps, a historian at the University of Potsdam, claims that the Picasso, Boy with a Pipe, was sold in 1949 despite his great-uncle's will stating that he wished the painting to remain in the Berlin family. He is arguing that the provisions of his great-uncle's will, which was made in 1935 with the aim of keeping the painting, and others, out of Nazi hands, were morally breached by the subsequent sale of the Picasso, which he describes as "a betrayal" of his family. (English)
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She sold the Picasso in 1949 to Walter Feilchenfeldt, a Zurich dealer. She had previously sold the van Goghs to several different buyers. Mr Feilchenfeldt sold on the Picasso for £10,000 in 1950 to the American diplomat John Hay Whitney. The Whitney-endowed Greentree Foundation was the seller at Sotheby's a month ago. The Mendelssohn-Bartholdy sisters, who went into exile in London in 1938, were powerless to act - and, says Prof Schoeps, "probably ignorant" of what was going on. Marie von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, the eldest, was aware of Nazi ransacking of family possessions stored in a Berlin warehouse and a forced auction that followed, but she was helpless because the Mendelssohn Bank was "Aryanized" and transferred to an "Aryan" German bank. (British English)