| Wilhelm Mautner | |
| Birth Date: | 28 November 1889 |
| Birth Place: | Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
| Death Date: | 1944 |
| Death Place: | Auschwitz, Poland |
| Nationality: | Austro-German |
| Occupation: | Economist |
Wilhelm Mautner (28 November 1889 – 1944) was born in Vienna. He was an Austrian-German economist and attorney-in-fact of the Rotterdamse Bank who spent a part of his life in the Netherlands. Mautner was born Jewish. He was also an art collector.
After a short professional career in banking and industry, he studied economics in Paris, Vienna and Tübingen, where he finished his studies and wrote a thesis about Bolshevism in 1919.[1] In the same year, he moved to the Netherlands.
From 1929 until 1944 he lived in Amsterdam. Mautner never married and had no children. On 22 July 1941, he drew up a will in which he appointed his brother in Ohio in the United States as his sole heir. During the war Mautner attempted unsuccessfully to escape from the Nazi regime.[2] Mautner tried to get an exit visa for the United States with the help of his brother, who lived in New York. In December 1943 Mautner was removed from his home in Amsterdam during a raid and transported to Westerbork transit camp and from there to Theresienstadt[3] concentration camp. Mautner died on or around 29 September 1944 in Auschwitz concentration camp.
Mautner collected paintings. His collection also included some Dutch old masters. He continued purchasing works of art during the war. At that time he was in frequent contact with Max Jakob Friedlander.[4] From 1941, he was no longer able to do so in his own name because of his Jewish origins. He gave works of art to various people for safekeeping. In February 1942, Mautner was ordered to move to Tugelaweg in Amsterdam as a result of the forced relocation of Jews. He sent 15 paintings for safe-keeping with the collector Dr J. van Dongen on the city's Museumplein. The latter kept all of these items until after the war. Other works, including a Brueghel and a Timmermann, were sold under duress in 1943 by Mautner. Various of Mautner's works of art and other possessions were recovered for his heirs, by custodians of his estate after the war. The 15 paintings in J.A. van Dongen's custody were probably bought by van Dongen with the consent of Mautner's heirs.Three of the paintings that Mautner sold under duress are:
The latter two were acquired by the Sonderauftrag Linz and returned to the Netherlands after the war, where they became part of the NK-Collection of the Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit.[5]
He also sold 12 paintings, primarily 19th century, to W. Kadzik from Vienna. Mautner could not act as a seller, due to his Jewish origin, so he asked his friend Hans Alfred Wetzlar to fulfill the formalities. It is unknown where the works are.