Walter Westfeld

Walter Westfeld or Westfield (4 March 1889 – c. May 1945) was a German Jewish art collector and art dealer whose collection was plundered by Nazis. Westfield was murdered in the Holocaust.

Early life

Walter Westfeld, brother of the painter Max Westfeld, ran a gallery in Wuppertal-Elberfeld at Herzogstrasse 2 from 1920 to May 1936.

Nazi persecution

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Walter Westfeld was persecuted and plundered because of his Jewish origins.[1]

After the Reich Chamber of Culture banned outlawed Jewish art dealers, Westfeld was forced to liquidate his gallery. He moved to Düsseldorf at Humboldtstrasse 24.

Attempt to flee

In August 1937 he was denounced to the Düsseldorf police for violating Nazi anti-semitic race laws by living with a non-Jew Emelie Scheulen (born 6 June 1896 in Düsseldorf). After Kristallnacht in 1938, he and Scheulen and Westfeld prepared to flee to the USA. According to the book Lost Lives, Lost Art: Jewish Collectors, Nazi Art Theft and the Quest for Justice, he "sold a few artworks, smuggled cash to his brother Robert via Amsterdam, and had about 250 of his most precious paintings and sculptures as well as numerous picture frames taken over the border to France with false papers. Assisting him were his servant Werner Abel, Düsseldorf art dealer and freight forwarder Fritz Beyer and August Kleucker."[1] The Nazis, however, had enacted confiscatory taxes, fees and rules to rob fleeing Jews of all their assets, and on 15 November 1938 Westfeld was arrested for violating the Third Reich's foreign exchange regulations.

Forced auction at Lempertz

The artworks still remaining in his collection were confiscated and on 12 and 13 December 1939, auctioned by Lempertz auction house in Cologne under Joseph Hanstein.[2] Westfeld was taken out of detention and forced to work on the catalog of the forced sale. The title of the auction was "Foreclosure ... from non-Aryan property ... on behalf of the Public Prosecutor General Düsseldorf." The forced auction of Westfeld's collection included artworks by Peter Paul Rubens, Egbert van der Poel, Antonio Molinari, Arnold Böcklin, Alselm Feuerbach, Camille Pissarro, Jean-François Millet, Carl Spitzweg, Andreas Achenbach, Franz von Defregger, Franz von Lenbach, Adolf Scheyer and Rombout van Troyen.[1]

The Düsseldorf Regional Court sentenced Westfeld on 2 July 1940, under Director Hans Opderbecke and his assessors, Theodor Hoberg and Theo Groove, to three years and six months in prison and a fine of 300,000 Reichsmarks. Emilie Scheulen was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of 1,000 Reichsmarks. After serving his sentence, Westfeld was immediately rearrested in 1942 because, as a Jew, he was considered an enemy of the Nazi state.[3]

Westfeld wrote a letter to Scheulen in which he expressed his fear of being deported and concluded with the sentence, "There is not much fiddling about with a Jew." On 15 June 1942, Westfeld was questioned again by the Gestapo in the Düsseldorf police prison which wanted to locate an El Greco in his collection which Hitler wanted to confiscate the picture for his Führermuseum in Linz. On 23 September 1942, Walter Westfeld wrote his will on a small piece of cloth in his cell and appointed Emilie Scheulen as sole heir. He wrote his last words to his partner, whom he called Ihmer: "I know everything will be different after the war. So you, head up! Yet. Yet! I wait for you all over the world. 1000 grape greetings from the paradise of memory."[3]

Deportation and murder by Nazis

Painting by Eglon van der Neer from the Westfeld collection, now in the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston)

On 1 October 1942 Walter Westfeld was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp on the orders of Police Officer Wilhelm Kurt Friedrich. Shortly thereafter, the Düsseldorf Regional Council, which did not recognize Westfeld's legacy to Scheulen, ordered the collection of Westfeld's remaining assets. Walter Westfeld was deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz on 23 January 1943, where he was subsequently murdered. The exact date of his death is unknown. In May 1945 he was pronounced dead.[3]

Attempts to recover the looted art collection

In September 1947, Emilie Scheulen asked Galerie Lempertz for information about Walter Westfeld's assets. The gallery announced that all related documents had been destroyed.[4]

At the request of the Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office, the foreign currency ruling against Walter Westfeld of 2 July 1940 was overturned on 13 May 1952.

On 19 April 1956, the Ministry of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia issued a certificate confirming that Westfeld was married to Emilie Scheulen (marriage certificate No. 362/1956 of the registry office Düsseldorf-Mitte dated 30 May 1956) and the marriage was retroactively registered for the date of 1 October 1935.

The Westfeld family has located a few of the artworks, including an Adolf Menzel and a Franz von Lenbach (in Burladingen), however while Menzel's Upturned Teapot was restituted, the mayor of Burladingen rejected any attempt to make amends stating, "We are not bound by the Washington Declaration... If we had a duty to return the painting, there would be laws forcing us to do so. But there are no such laws".[1]

Other works, such as the watercolor Das Burggespenst by Leo Putz, seized in 1939 and auctionned off through Lempertz, are considered lost and listed on the German Lost Art Foundation website (Lost Art-ID 461012)[5][6]

The Westfeld heirs, represented by Fred Westfeld, have initiated several restitution claims for the looted artworks.

In 2011, a settlement was reached between the Westfeld heir and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts for the painting, Portrait of a Man and Woman in an Interior (1665–67) by Dutch artist Eglon van der Neer (1634–1703)[7][8][9][10][11] It had been sold to the museum by E. & A. Silberman Galleries.[12]

A lawsuit Westfield v. Federal Republic of Germany was also filed against Germany.[13] Germany refused to restitute the looted artworks arguing that they were barred by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,[14] an argument which was accepted by the judge.[15]

  • Czöpan, Gabi (2009). "NS-Restitution Lebens- und Leidensgeschichten".
  • Müller, Melissa; Tatzkow, Monika (2008). Verlorene Bilder, verlorene Leben – Jüdische Sammler und was aus ihren Kunstwerken wurde (in German). München: Elisabeth-Sandmann. ISBN 978-3-938045-30-5.
  • "Walter Westfeld". Jüdische Sammler und Kunsthändler (Opfer nationalsozialistischer Verfolgung und Enteignung) – via LostArt.de.
  • Westfield v. Fed. Republic of Germany

Literature

  • Herbert Schmidt: Der Elendsweg der Düsseldorfer Juden – Chronologie des Schreckens 1933–1945. Droste, Düsseldorf 2005, ISBN 3-7700-1204-6.
  • Schweiger, Werner J. "Graphisches Kabinett J. Amendt". kunsthandel-der-moderne.eu. Archived from the original on 12 September 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2023.

See also

The Holocaust

List of claims for restitution for Nazi-looted art

Nazi plunder

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Müller, Melissa (2010). Lost lives, lost art: Jewish collectors, Nazi art theft and the quest for justice. Frontline. ISBN 978-1-84832-577-7. OCLC 742252182.
  2. ↑ "Westfeld, Walter". Lost Art Internet Database – Jüdische Sammler und Kunsthändler (Opfer nationalsozialistischer Verfolgung und Enteignung). Retrieved 3 April 2021 – via lostart.de.
  3. 1 2 3 "Walter Westfeld". Gedenkbuch Wuppertal. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  4. ↑ Hickley, Catherine (1 November 2008). "Nazi victim's family sues Germany over looted art". Star Tribune. Bloomberg News. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  5. ↑ Leo Putz. Musei provinziali Alto Adige. 2019. ISBN 9788895523163. 937 wurden in der Nazi-Aktion „Entartete Kunst" aus den Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Kassel sein Aquarell Zwei Akte und die Druckgrafiken Liegender Frauenakt und Zwei Akte beschlagnahmt und vernichtet.[3] und bekam er Berufsverbot in Deutschland. Sein Aquarell Burggespenst (60 × 46 cm) wurde mit der Sammlung es jüdischen Sammlers und Kunsthändlers Walter Westfeld beschlagnahmt und 1939 vom Kunsthaus Lempertz zwangsversteigert. Es gilt als verschollen.
  6. ↑ "Das Burggespenst | Lost Art-Datenbank". www.lostart.de. Retrieved 8 February 2023. Walter Westfeld, Düsseldorf; 12./13.12.1939 Zwangsversteigerung Kunsthaus Lempertz, Köln, Nr. 263
  7. ↑ "Walter Westfeld painting at MFA Boston June 2011: Provenance Outreach Conducted by Museum of Fine Arts Boston Results in Agreement to Retain Ownership of Eglon Van der Neer's 'Portrait of a man and woman in an interior'". www.lootedart.com. Archived from the original on 23 August 2020. Retrieved 3 April 2021. The Museum decided to reach a financial settlement for the painting with the estate after reviewing recent research conducted by Victoria Reed, the Museum's Monica S. Sadler Curator for Provenance. This research has clarified few details about the path the work took between 1936, when it was last documented in Westfeld's possession, and 1941, when it appeared on the New York art market. While the six-year, international research project was not conclusive, it resulted in the identification of a limited number of ways the painting could have left his possession during this time. Based on these scenarios, it is unlikely that Westfeld gave or sold the painting voluntarily, but rather, as a Jewish art dealer living in Nazi Germany, disposed of it due to persecution.
  8. ↑ "Nazi victim's Nashville heir to be paid". lootedart.com. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  9. ↑ "Suspecting It Harbors a Nazi-Looted Painting, MFA Boston Preemptively Pays Settlement". lootedart.com. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  10. ↑ "The MFA's Painting Worth A Thousand Words". wbur.org. 5 July 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  11. ↑ Itzkoff, Dave (27 June 2011). "ARTS, BRIEFLY; Museum of Fine Arts Has Deal on Painting". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  12. ↑ "Portrait of a Man and Woman in an Interior". Association of Art Museum Directors. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  13. ↑ Staff, Courthouse News (7 October 2008). "Heirs Demand Millions From Germany|For Art Collection Looted By Nazis". Courthouse News Service. Retrieved 3 April 2021. Nazis arrested art dealer Walter Westfeld just after Kristallnacht and killed him at Auschwitz after seizing his collection of Old Masters paintings, including works by Rubens, Hals and van Dyck. Before killing him, the Nazis demanded to know what happened to an El Greco that Hitler wanted for his private collection. Now Westfeld's heirs have sued Germany, demanding the return of the looted paintings.
  14. ↑ "Westfield v. Fed. Republic of Germany, 633 F.3d 410 | Casetext Search + Citator". casetext.com. Retrieved 3 April 2021. The Heirs of Walter Westfeld, a prominent German art dealer during the 1930s, seek to recover the value of Westfeld's art collection from the Federal Republic of Germany. Westfeld had attempted to remove his art collection to Tennessee but, before he could do so, Nazi officials seized and sold off the collection. The district court granted Germany's motion to dismiss, holding that the Heirs' claims were barred by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, and do not fall within the exception for acts in connection with commercial activity.
  15. ↑ Birnkrant, Michael J. (2019). "The Failure of Soft Law to Provide an Equitable Framework for Restitution of Nazi-looted Art". Global Studies Law Review. Washington University School of Law. 18 (1). ISSN 1546-6981. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
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