ANN: Reminder – German Lost Art Foundation series of talks with descendants of Jewish art collectors (Johannes Nathan, 1 Sep 2022)

The final of the Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion’s three-part se­ries of dis­cus­sions with de­scen­dants of Jew­ish art col­lec­tors takes place on 1 September with Johannes Nathan. The for­mat con­tin­ues from its in­tro­duc­tion in 2021 dur­ing the fes­ti­val year “#2021JLID – Jew­ish Life in Ger­many”.

For the event on Septem­ber 1 in the Lieber­mann Vil­la, please reg­is­ter by Au­gust 25. In ad­di­tion, the event will be streamed on­line. You will find the link short­ly be­fore the event here.

Jew­ish pa­trons and col­lec­tors had an im­por­tant role in Ger­man cul­tur­al life since the nine­teenth cen­tu­ry. As the Na­tion­al So­cial­ists rose to pow­er, they were per­se­cut­ed and dis­en­fran­chised and their prop­er­ty seized and loot­ed. Many for­mer­ly promi­nent art col­lec­tions are still dis­persed to­day and their col­lec­tors are fre­quent­ly for­got­ten. The Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion funds projects with de­scen­dants where their lost her­itage is re­con­struct­ed, re­call­ing a vi­tal part of cul­tur­al his­to­ry. Three con­ver­sa­tions with Al­fred Fass, Rafael Car­doso, and Jo­hannes Nathan will chron­i­cle the search for lost col­lec­tions of their fam­i­lies and the re­con­struc­tion of mem­o­ry.

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1 Septem­ber, 6:30 pm: Jo­hannes Nathan in con­ver­sa­tion with Lea Rosh (in per­son event at the Lieber­mann Vil­la on Wannsee and on­line)

Jo­hannes Nathan is a de­scen­dant of Hugo Hel­bing (1863-1938), who un­til 1935 was one of the lead­ing art deal­ers and auc­tion­eers in Eu­rope and amassed a sig­nif­i­cant art col­lec­tion. In ad­di­tion to his main busi­ness in Mu­nich, Hel­bing main­tained a branch in Frank­furt am Main and an of­fice in Berlin and worked close­ly with the Berlin art deal­er Paul Cas­sir­er. His auc­tions were con­sid­ered so­cial events, and he was high­ly dec­o­rat­ed for his ser­vices to the Bavar­i­an State Paint­ing Col­lec­tions. Af­ter 1933, his busi­ness fell on hard times. On the night of the pogrom, Hugo Hel­bing was at­tacked in his apart­ment and so bad­ly mal­treat­ed that he suc­cumbed to his in­juries on Novem­ber 30, 1938. Two days lat­er, the forced liq­ui­da­tion of his art busi­ness be­gan, and the col­lec­tion was seized from his heirs. In a project fund­ed by the Foun­da­tion in co­op­er­a­tion with Meike Hopp of the In­sti­tute for Art His­to­ry and His­tor­i­cal Ur­ban Stud­ies at the Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­si­ty of Berlin, the col­lec­tion is cur­rent­ly be­ing re­con­struct­ed as far as pos­si­ble and the where­abouts of the art­works clar­i­fied.

Dr. Jo­hannes Nathan is an art his­to­ri­an and art deal­er in Pots­dam and Zurich, TIAMSA Co-Chair and chair­man of the Max Lieber­mann So­ci­ety Berlin e.V. 
Lea Rosh is a mul­ti-award-win­ning au­thor and pub­li­cist.

The con­ver­sa­tion will be held in Ger­man.