Rudolf Leopold
Encyclopedia
Rudolf Leopold was an Austria
n art collector, whose collection of 5,000 works of art was purchased by the Government of Austria and used to create the Leopold Museum
, of which he was made director for life. Claims had been made by Jewish survivors of the Holocaust that some of the pieces in the collection were Nazi plunder
and should be returned to their rightful owners.
, and said in interviews that he had escaped conscription by the Nazis by hiding in a small village in a remote part of Austria. He earned his medical degree from the Medical University of Vienna
.
He started actively collecting art in the mid-1950s, with a major early focus being pieces by Egon Schiele
, whose works were available inexpensively at the time. Other Austrian artists who he collected included Gustav Klimt
and Oskar Kokoschka
. The wonder he felt from seeing the art during a 1947 visit to the Kunsthistorisches Museum
in Vienna, a day he called "one of the most important days in my life", led Leopold to start a collection of his own. His first acquisition was a work by Friedrich Gauermann
in 1947, which he paid for in exchange for tutoring. He acquired a catalogue of Schiele's work in 1950 and became enamored with the artist's work, despite the fact that he was distinctly out of fashion. Pieces that Rudolf bought for a few dollars would later be worth hundreds of thousands.
He was especially noted for bringing public attention and appreciation to the work of Schiele, whose nude drawings had been considered pornographic at times. Leopold wrote the 1973 illustrated book Egon Schiele, which was published by Phaidon Press
and included 228 of the artist's work along with selected poems.
In 1994, the Austrian government agreed to purchase the collection for one-third of its appraised value of $500 million, with the works to be displayed at what was to become the Leopold Museum
in Vienna, of which he was made director for life. The museum opened to the public in 2001.
Egon Schiele: The Leopold Collection, a 1997 exhibit of pieces he had collected that was shown in New York City
at the Museum of Modern Art
drew attention because of the questioned provenance
of two pieces included in the exhibit. Holland Cotter, in his review of the exhibition in The New York Times
, noted that Schiele and his "X-rated subject matter" is rarely seen in U.S. museums. In December, 1997, Judith H. Dobrzynski
wrote an investigative piece about Leopold's collecting, uncovering the connection between him and Leah Bondi Jaray, who owned "Portrait of Wally" before World War II, as well as other questionable purchases made by Leopold. "THE ZEALOUS COLLECTOR: A Special Report" [The New York Times]] December 24, 1997. Dobrzynski's article led the Bondi family to write to MoMA requesting that it be held in New York.
Dead City III was claimed by the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum
, an artist who had been killed in 1941 at the Dachau concentration camp. Portrait of Wally
, a painting of Valerie Neuzil, was claimed by the family of Lea Bondi Jaray, a Jewish art dealer from Austria who had been forced to flee to London to escape the Nazis. In January 1998, Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau served a subpoena on the Museum of Modern Art, demanding that the museum hold on to the two artworks in question and not return them to the Leopold Museum, a move that left many in the art world "shocked". Leopold insisted that he had not dealt in looted art, saying "I'm not a Nazi and I'm not a Nazi profiteer". While Dead City III was ultimately returned to the Leopold Museum, Portrait of Wally has been the subject of a protracted court battle in U.S. federal and state courts with heirs alleging that Leopold knew that the painting had been Nazi loot when he purchased it. A 2008 study of the works in the Leopold Museum, commissioned by a group of Austrian Jews, found that at least 11 pieces of art there had belonged to victims of the Nazis and that Leopold had reason to believe that the pieces had been Nazi loot.
He lived in the Vienna suburb of Grinzing
in a modest home that he and his wife had lived in together for decades, which housed the many works of art that he continued to amass, even after the bulk of his collection had been purchased by the state. Leopold died at age 85 on June 29, 2010, in Vienna due to multiple organ failure
. He was survived by his wife Elisabeth, as well as by a daughter, two sons and four grandchildren.
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n art collector, whose collection of 5,000 works of art was purchased by the Government of Austria and used to create the Leopold Museum
Leopold Museum
The Leopold Museum, housed in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria, is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art, featuring artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl....
, of which he was made director for life. Claims had been made by Jewish survivors of the Holocaust that some of the pieces in the collection were Nazi plunder
Nazi plunder
Nazi plunder refers to art theft and other items stolen as a result of the organized looting of European countries during the time of the Third Reich by agents acting on behalf of the ruling Nazi Party of Germany. Plundering occurred from 1933 until the end of World War II, particularly by military...
and should be returned to their rightful owners.
Biography
Leopold was born on March 1, 1925, in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, and said in interviews that he had escaped conscription by the Nazis by hiding in a small village in a remote part of Austria. He earned his medical degree from the Medical University of Vienna
Medical University of Vienna
The Medical University of Vienna is a medical university in Vienna, Austria.Formerly the faculty of medicine of the University of Vienna, became an independent university on January 1, 2004...
.
He started actively collecting art in the mid-1950s, with a major early focus being pieces by Egon Schiele
Egon Schiele
Egon Schiele was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity, and the many self-portraits the artist produced...
, whose works were available inexpensively at the time. Other Austrian artists who he collected included Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects...
and Oskar Kokoschka
Oskar Kokoschka
Oskar Kokoschka was an Austrian artist, poet and playwright best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes.-Biography:...
. The wonder he felt from seeing the art during a 1947 visit to the Kunsthistorisches Museum
Kunsthistorisches Museum
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on Ringstraße, it is crowned with an octagonal dome...
in Vienna, a day he called "one of the most important days in my life", led Leopold to start a collection of his own. His first acquisition was a work by Friedrich Gauermann
Friedrich Gauermann
Friedrich Gauermann , Austrian painter, son of the landscape painter Jacob Gauermann , was born at Miesenbach near Gutenstein in Lower Austria....
in 1947, which he paid for in exchange for tutoring. He acquired a catalogue of Schiele's work in 1950 and became enamored with the artist's work, despite the fact that he was distinctly out of fashion. Pieces that Rudolf bought for a few dollars would later be worth hundreds of thousands.
He was especially noted for bringing public attention and appreciation to the work of Schiele, whose nude drawings had been considered pornographic at times. Leopold wrote the 1973 illustrated book Egon Schiele, which was published by Phaidon Press
Phaidon Press
Phaidon Press is a British publisher of books on the visual arts, including art, architecture, photography, and design worldwide.As of 2009, Phaidon's headquarters are in London, UK, though they were in Oxford for many years, with offices in New York City, Paris, Berlin, Milan, and Tokyo...
and included 228 of the artist's work along with selected poems.
In 1994, the Austrian government agreed to purchase the collection for one-third of its appraised value of $500 million, with the works to be displayed at what was to become the Leopold Museum
Leopold Museum
The Leopold Museum, housed in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria, is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art, featuring artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl....
in Vienna, of which he was made director for life. The museum opened to the public in 2001.
Egon Schiele: The Leopold Collection, a 1997 exhibit of pieces he had collected that was shown in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
drew attention because of the questioned provenance
Provenance
Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", refers to the chronology of the ownership or location of an historical object. The term was originally mostly used for works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing...
of two pieces included in the exhibit. Holland Cotter, in his review of the exhibition in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, noted that Schiele and his "X-rated subject matter" is rarely seen in U.S. museums. In December, 1997, Judith H. Dobrzynski
Judith H. Dobrzynski
Judith Helen Dobrzynski is an American journalist and instructor in journalism.She is currently a freelance writer who has contributed articles on culture, the arts, business, philanthropy and other topics to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and several magazines.She also writes opinion...
wrote an investigative piece about Leopold's collecting, uncovering the connection between him and Leah Bondi Jaray, who owned "Portrait of Wally" before World War II, as well as other questionable purchases made by Leopold. "THE ZEALOUS COLLECTOR: A Special Report" [The New York Times]] December 24, 1997. Dobrzynski's article led the Bondi family to write to MoMA requesting that it be held in New York.
Dead City III was claimed by the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum
Fritz Grünbaum
Fritz Grünbaum was an Austrian Jewish cabaret artist, operetta and pop song writer, director, actor and master of ceremonies....
, an artist who had been killed in 1941 at the Dachau concentration camp. Portrait of Wally
Portrait of Wally
Portrait of Wally is a 1912 oil painting by Austrian painter Egon Schiele of Valerie "Wally" Neuzil, a woman he met in 1911 when she was 17 years old and who was a model for a number of Schiele's most striking paintings...
, a painting of Valerie Neuzil, was claimed by the family of Lea Bondi Jaray, a Jewish art dealer from Austria who had been forced to flee to London to escape the Nazis. In January 1998, Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau served a subpoena on the Museum of Modern Art, demanding that the museum hold on to the two artworks in question and not return them to the Leopold Museum, a move that left many in the art world "shocked". Leopold insisted that he had not dealt in looted art, saying "I'm not a Nazi and I'm not a Nazi profiteer". While Dead City III was ultimately returned to the Leopold Museum, Portrait of Wally has been the subject of a protracted court battle in U.S. federal and state courts with heirs alleging that Leopold knew that the painting had been Nazi loot when he purchased it. A 2008 study of the works in the Leopold Museum, commissioned by a group of Austrian Jews, found that at least 11 pieces of art there had belonged to victims of the Nazis and that Leopold had reason to believe that the pieces had been Nazi loot.
He lived in the Vienna suburb of Grinzing
Grinzing
Grinzing was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna.- Geography :- Location :...
in a modest home that he and his wife had lived in together for decades, which housed the many works of art that he continued to amass, even after the bulk of his collection had been purchased by the state. Leopold died at age 85 on June 29, 2010, in Vienna due to multiple organ failure
Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome
Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome ', previously known as multiple organ failure or multisystem organ failure , is altered organ function in an acutely ill patient requiring medical intervention to achieve homeostasis...
. He was survived by his wife Elisabeth, as well as by a daughter, two sons and four grandchildren.