Mariana Frenk-Westheim (June 4, 1898 – June 24, 2004) was a German-Mexican writer of prose, Hispanist, lecturer in literature, museum curator, and translator from Spanish to German.[1]

Frenk-Westheim, the daughter of Jewish parents, was born in Hamburg and left Germany in 1930 with her husband, physician Ernst Frenk, and two children, and moved to Mexico. After her husband's death she married Paul Westheim, an art historian.

Her most renowned translations are of books by Mexican author Juan Rulfo. In 2002 she published her poems in a volume, "Tausend Reime für Große und Kleime. Die Tier- und Dingwelt alphabetisch vorgestellt". She died in Mexico City at the age of 106.[2]

In 2013, Frenk-Westheim's daughter Margit Frenk sued for the return of paintings from Westheim's art collection, alleging that Charlotte Weidler, to whom they had been entrusted in Nazi Germany, sold them illegally after telling Westheim that they had been destroyed.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Phillips, Zlata Fuss (2001-01-01). German Children's and Youth Literature in Exile 1933-1950: Biographies and Bibliographies. Walter de Gruyter. p. 85. ISBN 9783110952858. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  2. ↑ Frenk-Westheim, Mariana (August 2013). Aforismos, cuentos y otras aventuras. Letras Mexicanas (in Spanish). Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica. p. 349. ISBN 978-607-16-1393-6.
  3. ↑ Klasfeld, Adam (2013-01-30). "Art Case Alleges WW II-Era Double-Cross". Courthouse News Service. Archived from the original on 2020-12-17. Retrieved 2021-05-24. Westheim's daughter, Margit Frenk, seeks the return of at least four paintings and $3.6 million for a fifth one she says the gallery sold. The paintings include a Paul Klee watercolor and Max Pechstein's "Portrait of Paul Westheim." Frenk, of Mexico City, sued the Yris Rabenou Gallery; its owner, Yris Rabenou Solomon; her husband, David Solomon; and their sons, Darius and Teimour Solomon, in New York County Supreme Court. Yris Rabenou Solomon is executrix of the estate of Charlotte Weidler, an art dealer and former friend of Westheim's in Berlin, according to the complaint. Westheim, an early proponent of German expressionism, published two influential art journals, "Das Kunstblatt" (The Art Page) and "Die Schaffenden" (The Creator), and collected more than 3,000 works by Oskar Kokoschka, Otto Dix, Otto Muller, Max Pechstein and others. His nontraditional aesthetics and Jewish heritage made him a target of persecution as the Nazis rose to power. Before fleeing to France, Westheim gave his collection to Weidler in 1935 for safekeeping until he could return, his daughter says in the complaint. The Nazis continued to pursue him in occupied Paris, until he escaped to Mexico. "After the conclusion of World War II, Weidler had led Westheim to believe that his art collection had been lost or destroyed during the war, and she broke off communications with him," the complaint states.


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