Karl Buchholz (art dealer) explained

Karl Buchholz (born August 26, 1901 in Göttingen, † January 6, 1992 in Bogotá) was one of Hitler's Nazi art dealers specialized in selling looted "Degenerate Art".[1]

Early life

Buchholz took his first job in Berlin, where he started his own bookstore on Taubenstrasse in 1925. In 1926 he expanded his business on Mauerstrasse and two branches were soon added in Berlin. In 1934, the international bookstore on Leipziger Strasse included a gallery of contemporary art on the floor above the shop, where Curt Valentin worked until he emigrated in 1937 and founded the Buchholz Gallery on 46th Street in New York[2]

Dealer in Nazi confiscated art

Karl Buchholz dealt in art looted by the Nazis, both from museums and from Jewish collectors.[3] When the Nazis attacked modern art as “Degenerate Art”, Karl Buchholz was commissioned from 1938 together with Ferdinand Möller, Hildebrand Gurlitt and Bernhard A. Böhmer by Goebbels's Reich Ministry of People's Enlightenment and Propaganda to sell the confiscated works of art to raise cash for the Third Reich.[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] The discovery of the Gurlitt stash in 2012/2013 suggests that some of the art was kept for personal profit as well.[9]

Buchholz sold art in Norway, Switzerland and the United States and supplied east coast museums through his New York gallery.[10] Buchholz in Germany worked with Valentin in New York. Valentin, a Jew, received special permission from the Nazis to sale art in New York. Buchholz' daughter Godula described the unusual circumstances of Valentin's emigration to the United States.As part of their program of robbing Jews, the Nazis usually prevented fleeing Jews from taking assets with them. But, according to Godula Buchholz, Valentin carried “baggage containing sculptures, [p]aintings, and drawings from the Galerie Buchholz in Berlin[11] ”

In 1942 Buchholz was expelled from the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts.[12] When the United States entered World War II, communications with Valentin were said to be broken off before resuming postwar.[13] In 1943 he founded a branch in Lisbon.[14] On May 29, 1944, citing the Trading with the Enemy Act, the U.S. government seized 401 artworks that Buchholz had shipped to Valentin.[15] [16]

Postwar investigation and emigration to Colombia

After the war, Buchholz was investigated by the OSS Art Looting Intelligence Unit because of his trafficking in confiscated and looted art.[17] [18] According to the OSS, the spy Wilhelm Gessmann (alias Alexander, Joan Charles; Alendorf, Wilhelm) worked as a representative of the Buchholz art and bookselling establishments in Berlin and Lisbon.[19] and Enrique Lehrfeld was Buchholz' partner in the New German Bookshop in Lisbon, 50 avda da Liberdade.[20]

After the end of the war, Buchholz emigrated with his family to Colombia and from 1951 ran a bookstore and gallery in Bogotá, the Librería Buchholz,[21] which his daughter Godula Buchholz, born in 1935,[22] later took over. Buchholz became the publisher of the literary magazine Eco, founded in 1960. Revista de la cultura de Occidente, which lasted until 1984.[23]

Restitution claims for Nazi-looted art

The Buchholz-Valentin partnership has emerged in several restitution claims concerning art looted from private Jewish art collectors and dealers. Claims filed in U.S. courts concern art allegedly stolen from Georg Grosz and from Alfred Flechtheim which transited through Buchholz' partner Curt Valentin[24] [25] as well as from Alphonse Kann[26] and others. Claims that have gone before German commissions include artworks that belonged to Clara Levy, a textile manufacturer who was persecuted by the Nazis.[27]

The exact role of Karl Buchholz concerning Nazi-looted art is the subject of ongoing studies.[28]

See also

Publications

Catalogs of the gallery in Germany

Literature

Links

References

  1. Web site: Petropoulos. Jonathan. Bridges from the Reich: The Importance of Émigré Art Dealers as Reflected in the Case Studies of Curt Valentin and Otto Kallir– Nirenstein. Buchholz, as is now well–known, was one of the dealers who sold off the purged "degenerate art" ("entartete Kunst") and who had a close working relationship with operatives in both the Nazi Foreign Ministry and the Reich Propaganda Ministry.
  2. Web site: Lost Art Internet Database - Beteiligte Privatpersonen und Körperschaften am NS-Kulturgutraub - Buchholz, Karl. 2021-04-11. www.lostart.de. Buchholz, Karl 1901–1992; Buch- und Kunsthändler, Berlin (Hauptsitz), New York, Bukarest, Lissabon, Bogotá, "Galerie Buchholz", "Buchhandlung Karl Buchholz Kunstausstellung", "Antiquariat Buchholz", gegründet vor 1926, 1934-43 Adresse: Berlin W8, Leipziger Straße 119/120 (Galerieleiter: 1934–36 Curt Valentin (1902–1954), 1936-37 Ulrich Riemerschmidt, 1937-44 Georg von Hülsen), 1937-55 New York, "Buchholz Gallery - Curt Valentin", "Valentin Gallery", unter der Leitung des emigrierten Curt Valentin, 1940-45 Bukarest, Adresse: Calea Victoriei 45, "Libraria si Expozitia de Arta Buchholz" (Geschäftsführerin: Catharina Gosch), 1943-92 Lissabon, Adresse: Avenida da Liberdade 50, "Livraria Buchholz Exposicoes" (Geschäftsführerin: Katharina Braun), 1945-67 Madrid, Adresse: Paseo de Recoletos 3, "Libreria Buchholz, S.A., Exposiciónes" (Geschäftsführerin: Gerda Luedde-Neurath), 1951-1983 Bogotá, Adresse: Avenida Jiménez des Quesada 8, "Libreria Buchholz Galeria", zwischen 1951 und 1992 Gründung und Auflösung diverser Filialen, zeigte und verkaufte Gegenwartskunst, insbesondere Skulptur und Zeichnungen, weniger Malerei, präsentierte in der NS-Zeit eine "gemäßigte" Moderne, im Geheimen fanden Ausstellungen von verbotenen Künstlern statt: u.a. Beckmann, Schmidt-Rottluff, Kollwitz, 1934-45 verkaufte daneben Kunst des 19. Jh. und frühere; 1938-41 involviert in "Verwertung" von "Entarteter Kunst", die der NS-Regierung zur Devisenbeschaffung diente.
  3. Book: Herausgeber, Fleckner, Uwe 1961- Herausgeber Gaehtgens, Thomas W. Herausgeber Huemer, Christian. Markt und Macht der Kunsthandel im "Dritten Reich". 2017. 978-3-11-054719-1. 1006782142.
  4. Book: Petropoulos, Jonathan. Göring's man in Paris : the story of a Nazi art plunderer and his world. 26 January 2021. 978-0-300-25621-5. 1226062084.
  5. Book: Ronald, Susan. Hitler's art thief. 31 January 2017. 978-1-250-09667-8. 1065299072.
  6. News: Gilbert. Story by Sophie. The Persistent Crime of Nazi-Looted Art. The Atlantic. 2021-04-11. 1072-7825. In Switzerland alone, Susan Ronald recounts, the four favored art dealers used by the Third Reich—Ferdinand Möller, Bernhard Bohmer, Karl Buchholz, and Hildebrand Gurlitt—sold some 8,700 objects between 1937 and 1941. Curt Valentin, a half-Jewish refugee from Germany who operated the Karl Buchholz Gallery in New York and who died in 1954, has long been considered the conduit for a number of looted artworks that found their way to the U.S..
  7. News: 2013-11-04. The unfinished art business of World War Two. en-GB. BBC News. 2021-04-11. Hildebrand Gurlitt, Karl Buchholz, Ferdinand Moeller and Bernhard Boehmer set up shop in Schloss Niederschonhausen, just outside Berlin, to sell the near-16,000 cache of paintings and sculptures which Hitler and Goering removed from the walls of German museums in 1937-38..
  8. Web site: Bridges from the Reich: The Importance of Émigré Art Dealers as Reflected in the Case Studies of Curt Valentin and Otto Kallir– Nirenstein. Notably, Curt Valentin served as a conduit of the purged »degenerate« artwork that his partner Karl Buchholz directed to him. As one of the four dealers initially selected by Goebbels's Reich Ministry of People's Enlightenment and Propaganda to sell »degenerate« art purged from German state collections, Buchholz held an extraordinary position.34 When Buchholz received his formal contract with the Reich Propaganda Ministry to sell off »degenerate« art on 5 May 1939, the final provision was that Buchholz keep thecontract secret: Buchholz received a commission of 25% in Reichsmarks for the works he sold. Contemporaneous documents from Goebbels's Reich Propaganda Ministry – now located in the German Federal Archives – also list the works purged from German museums that were sent to Valentin for sale between 1939 and 1941..
  9. Web site: Welle (www.dw.com). Deutsche. Conspiracies swirl in 1939 Nazi art burning DW 20.03.2014. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304221813/https://www.dw.com/en/conspiracies-swirl-in-1939-nazi-art-burning/a-17510022. 2016-03-04. 2021-04-11. DW.COM. en-GB. Four art dealers were selected by the Ministry of Propaganda to obtain foreign currency for the Nazi regimes: Bernhard Böhmer, Karl Buchholz, Ferdinand Möller and Hildebrand Gurlitt - the father of Cornelius Gurlitt. "They landed a relatively small sum for the war fund," Hoffman says, adding that someone once calculated that the money would've been enough to buy one tank.But the sales to foreign investors had another side-effect: one of the four art dealers, Karl Buchholz, sold nearly 650 works to his Jewish business partner, Curt Valentin, who had emigrated to New York..
  10. Web site: Cohan. William D.. 2011-11-17. MoMA's Problematic Provenances. 2021-04-11. ARTnews.com. en-US. Barr secretly enlisted Valentin as his agent in the Fischer auction, with funds supplied by his trustees. The museum acquired five artworks that day: Kirchner’s Street Scene and Lehmbruck’s Kneeling Woman, both confiscated from the Berlin National Gallery; Klee’s Around the Fish, from the Dresden Gallery; Matisse’s The Blue Window, from the Folkwang Museum in Essen; and Derain’s Valley of the Lot at Vers, from the Cologne Museum. The day after the auction, Barr wrote to a MoMA colleague from Paris: “I am just as glad not to have the museum’s name or my own associated with the auction. . . . I think it very important that our releases on our own German acquisitions should state that [the works] have been purchased from the Buchholz Gallery, New York.” That is exactly what happened. Two months later, MoMA announced that it had purchased the five paintings through Valentin’s gallery, which by then he owned in full, having bought out Buchholz. (He changed the name in 1951 to the Curt Valentin Gallery.) Art publications hailed the acquisition as a repudiation of the Nazi regime and its policies toward so-called degenerate art..
  11. Web site: Cohan. William D.. 2011-11-17. MoMA's Problematic Provenances. 2021-04-11. ARTnews.com. en-US. By November 1936, Valentin had made his deal with the Nazis that would allow him to emigrate to New York and to sell “degenerate art” to help fund the war effort. “The President of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts instructed me to tell you that it would be of no objection to him if you make use of your connections with the German art circle and thereby establish supplementary export opportunities, if [this is done] outside Germany,” according to the authorization letter. “Once you are in a foreign country, you are free to purchase works by German artists in Germany and make use of them in America.” In January 1937, with financing from Buchholz, Valentin left for New York and set up the Karl Buchholz Gallery at 3 West 46th Street. According to Buchholz’s daughter Godula, who wrote a biography of her father, Valentin arrived in New York supplied with “degenerate art” from Germany. Normally, Jews allowed to leave Nazi Germany were permitted to take with them only ten reichsmarks, if that. But Valentin carried “baggage containing sculptures, [p]aintings, and drawings from the Galerie Buchholz in Berlin,” Godula Buchholz wrote..
  12. Web site: Petropoulos. Jonathan. Bridges from the Reich: The Importance of Émigré Art Dealers as Reflected in the Case Studies of Curt Valentin and Otto Kallir– Nirenstein1. Kunstgeschichte. Buchholz evidently ran afoul of certain Nazi authorities in 1942 and not only endured searches of his home and business, but was expelled from the Reich Chamber for the Visual Arts (but he was able to emigrate to Lisbon and open a business there in 1943.37 We therefore do not know the precise terms of the agreement between Buchholz and Valentin. After Valentin's death in 1954, Buchholz sued Valentin's heirs (his siblings), claiming that he was due a share of Valentin's New York gallery.3.
  13. Web site: Masks. 2021-04-11. art.nelson-atkins.org. en. Buchholz stored the painting in several locations between 1941 and 1948. It remained in Berlin until November 1943, when Buchholz sent it to his longtime friend Karl-Heinz Brandt in Gramzow, Germany. In March 1945, the painting was transferred to the Rosgartenmuseum in Konstanz, Germany, where it remained until December 1945, when Buchholz moved it to his family’s estate at Überlingen, Germany, where his wife Marie-Louise was staying with their children. In April 1948, Buchholz brought the painting to his Madrid gallery, Galería Buchholz. He consigned it Buchholz Gallery Curt Valentin in New York five months later..
  14. Brandão. Inês Fialho. 2017. 'Whats in Lisbon?' Portuguese Sources in Nazi-era Provenance Research. Journal of Contemporary History. 52. 3. 566–587. 10.1177/0022009416658699. 44504063. 220064367. 0022-0094.
  15. Web site: Valentin, Curt. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20191104235651/https://www.metmuseum.org/art/libraries-and-research-centers/leonard-lauder-research-center/research/index-of-cubist-art-collectors/valentin. 2019-11-04. 2021-04-11. www.metmuseum.org. This resulted from Karl Buchholz (still in Berlin) being one of four dealers—together with Ferdinand Möller (Berlin), Hildebrand Gurlitt (Hamburg), and Bernhard A. Böhmer (Güstrow)—tasked by Hitler’s Propaganda Ministry with the disposal of such art for profit. Many such works were sold between 1937 and 1941 through Valentin’s midtown Buchholz Gallery. After the U.S. declared war on Germany in December 1941, Valentin was forced to sever ties to Buchholz. Valentin was considered an enemy alien and, pursuant to the Trading with the Enemy Act, the Alien Property Custodian seized approximately 400 artworks from his gallery stock on May 29, 1944. The works were sold at auction in January 1945..
  16. Brandão. Inês Fialho. 2017. 'Whats in Lisbon?' Portuguese Sources in Nazi-era Provenance Research. Journal of Contemporary History. 52. 3. 566–587. 10.1177/0022009416658699. 44504063. 220064367 . 0022-0094.
  17. Web site: Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU) Reports 1945-1946 and ALIU Red Flag Names List and Index. 2021-04-11. www.lootedart.com. Buchholz, Karl. Lisbon, 50 avda da Liberdade. Berlin book dealer who opened a branch in Lisbon in 1943. Suspected of having worked for von Ribbentrop and Goebbels, and of possible traffic in loot. Partner of Lehrfeld, Portuguese national. Pre-war Berlin partner of Curt Valentin, German refugee dealer now established in New York (Buchholz Gallery, East 57th Street). Valentin is believed to have had no contact with Buchholz during the war..
  18. Web site: Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act - FBI Files Received by NARA. 2021-04-11. fas.org.
  19. Web site: Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU) Reports 1945-1946 and ALIU Red Flag Names List and Index. Gessmann, Wilhelm (alias Alexander, Joan Charles; Alendorf, Wilhelm). International spy; representative of the Buchholz art and bookselling establishments in Berlin and Lisbon..
  20. Web site: Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU) Reports 1945-1946 and ALIU Red Flag Names List and Index. 2021-04-11. www.lootedart.com. Lehrfeld, Enrique. Lisbon, 50 avda da Liberdade. Partner of Buchholz in the New German Bookshop..
  21. Web site: Buchholz, Karl - People - documenta archiv. 2021-04-11. www.documenta-bauhaus.de.
  22. Web site: Welt. Haus der Kulturen der. 2020-12-01. Contributors: Godula Buchholz Liebig. 2021-04-11. HKW. en.
  23. Web site: Semana. 2013-11-23. Karl Buchholz y su pasado entre sombras. 2021-04-11. Semana.com Últimas Noticias de Colombia y el Mundo. spanish.
  24. Web site: Cohan. William D.. 2011-11-17. MoMA's Problematic Provenances. 2021-04-11. ARTnews.com. en-US.
  25. Web site: New York museums have not returned Nazi-seized art. 2021-04-11. www.lootedart.com.
  26. Web site: Minneapolis Institute of Arts sends Nazi 'loot' home to Paris. 2021-04-11. lootedart.com. Star Tribune. The Leger painting, however, remained in Kann's house until Nov. 5, 1942, when France's German-controlled government auctioned the house's contents. A Paris art dealer, Galerie Leiris, bought the Leger at that auction and subsequently sold it to Buchholz Gallery..
  27. Web site: Limbach Commission Rules Against Claimants to Restitution of "Three Graces" by Lovis Corinth in Unpersuasive Opinion. 2021-04-11. www.lootedart.com. Art Law Report. Between sometime between 1940 and 1941, the Corinth painting was located in the Buchholz Gallery operated by Curt Valentin. If that name sounds familiar to readers, it is because Valentin and Kurt Buchholz were a primary destination for much of the “degenerate art” seized by the Nazis and sold for hard currency abroad. Art dealer Sigfried Rosengart in Lucerne later wrote in a 1951 letter that he had heard reports from New York that Valentin “had acquired [the painting] about ten years ago at a Public Auction Sale.” Rosengart sold the painting in 1949 on commission for the Buchholz Gallery to Prof. Dr. Max Huggler, director of the Kunstmuseum Bern (the same museum currently pondering its appointment as Cornelius Gurlitt’s heir) and brought it to Bern. The Bavarian State Painting Collections (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen) acquired the painting from Huggler in 1950.In 1959 Paula Levy, represented by attorney Henry Zacharias, brought a restitution claim for money damages against the Federal Republic of Germany as Fritz Levy’s widow and heir..
  28. Web site: The Research Centre for "Entartete Kunst" : Warburg-Haus. 2021-04-11. www.warburg-haus.de. From February 2013 to April 2016, the research team of Gesa Jeuthe and Anja Tiedemann worked on the project The Art Trade under National Socialism. A comprehensive survey analysis with an accompanying documentation of the activities of the galleries Alex Vömel, Düsseldorf, and Karl Buchholz, Berlin, was undertaken..

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