I was proud to inform the Allentown Art Museum that it announced today that it has reached an agreement with the heirs of Henry and Hertha Bromberg regarding Portrait of George, Duke of Saxony by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop. According to the agreement, the painting will be auctioned at Christie’s in New York next year, following an educational program focusing on the history of the painting. You can read the museum’s press release here. The story was also covered in an excellent article in The New York Times by Graham Bowley.
(Portrait of George the Bearded, Duke of Saxonyby Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop)
The museum’s research could not determine the exact timing of Bromberg’s Cranach sale, but the larger context of the Brombergs’ escape from the Nazis and the sale of his collection in the process was morally compelling. This made the sale one of those Nazi-era transactions that defy categorical description and thus often elude easy resolution. In this case, the museum and the Bromberg heirs sought a fair and equitable resolution in accordance with the principles of the Washington Conference on Nazi-Confiscated Art and the related Ethical Guidelines for Museums. This is a reminder that the outcome may not necessarily be a winner-takes-all. The evolving legal framework for cases like this is the subject of a law journal article I wrote, forthcoming in the Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy.
In a statement, Max Weintraub, president and CEO of the museum, said: “It was extremely important for the museum to address the ethical aspects of the painting’s history in the Bromberg family. This artwork only came to market and ultimately found its way to the museum because Henry Bromberg had to flee persecution by Nazi Germany. This moral imperative compelled us to act. We hope that this voluntary action by the museum will inform and encourage similar institutions to find fair and just solutions.”
A timeline of the key facts is as follows:
– Martin Bromberg acquired the Cranach in October 1917.
– Martin passed the Cranach on to his son Henry, who kept it in his house at Nonnenstieg 9 in Hamburg until 1935.
– Henry and Hertha Bromberg’s son Harald emigrated to the USA in 1935, followed by their son Edgar in 1936 and finally their youngest sons Gerhard and Oswald in 1938.
– Also in 1938, Henry and Hertha had to submit their asset inventory according to the infamous decree of April 27, 1938. Subsequently, in August 1938, the Hamburg authorities informed the Brombergs of the amount of the Reich Flight Tax they had to pay to leave Germany.
– The Brombergs left Germany on September 5 and 6, 1938, and arrived in Switzerland on September 7, 1938. They eventually managed to obtain a visa to enter the United States and left Europe on January 17, 1939, from Le Havre, France.
– On December 29, 1938, Allen Loebl of the F. Kleinberger Gallery in Paris confirmed in writing that he had purchased “the Bromberg collection,” referring specifically to the Cranach. Loebl sold the Cranach in 1939, and the museum purchased the Cranach from Wildenstein in New York in 1961.
