Hildebrand Gurlitt

Hildebrand Gurlitt
Gurlitt photographed in 1944
Born(1895-09-15)15 September 1895
Dresden, German Empire
Died9 November 1956(1956-11-09) (aged 61)
Düsseldorf, West Germany
Occupation(s)Art dealer and historian
Known forArt dealer during the Nazi era, war profiteering
SpouseHelene Hanke
Children
Parents
Relatives

Hildebrand Gurlitt (15 September 1895 – 9 November 1956) was a German art historian and art gallery director who dealt in Nazi-looted art as one of Hitler's and Goering's four authorized dealers for "degenerate art".[1]

A Nazi-associated art dealer and war profiteer, during the Nazi era Gurlitt traded in "degenerate art", purchasing paintings in Nazi-occupied France, many of them stolen, for Hitler's planned Führermuseum (which was never built) and for himself.[2][3] He also inherited family artworks from both his father and his sister, an accomplished artist in her own right. Following World War II and the denazification process he became Director of the Art Association for the Rhineland and Westphalia, until his death in a car accident at the age of 61. His personal collection of over 1,500 artworks by Impressionist, Cubist, and Expressionist artists and Old Masters, remained virtually unknown until it was brought to public attention in 2013 following its confiscation from the possession of his son, Cornelius Gurlitt,[4][5][6] who, although never reunited with the collection, bequeathed it upon his death in 2014 to the Museum of Fine Arts Bern in Switzerland.

  1. ^ "The unfinished art business of World War Two". BBC News. BBC. 4 November 2013. Archived from the original on 4 April 2014. Retrieved 7 June 2021. Hildebrand, one of four senior Modern Art dealers in Germany who were appointed in March 1938 to the Nazis' Confiscation Committee - with orders from Hitler and Herrmann Goering to sell "degenerate art" (entartete Kunst) for foreign currency.
  2. ^ Nicholas, Lynn H. (22 December 2009). The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. Random House LLC. p. 24. ISBN 9780307739728.
  3. ^ Kimmelman, Michael (19 November 2017). "The Void at the Heart of 'Gurlitt: Status Report'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 20 February 2022. Buying for Hitler, Hildebrand had a blank check and no scruples, obtaining works by Delacroix and Fragonard, Seurat and Courbet, sometimes to fill gaps in German museums left by the elimination of modern art, skimming off what he wanted to keep or sell.
  4. ^ Oltermann, Philip (5 November 2013). "Picasso, Matisse and Dix among works found in Munich's Nazi art stash". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  5. ^ Oltermann, Philip (4 November 2013). "The mysterious Munich recluse who hoarded €1bn of Nazis' stolen art". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  6. ^ "Sensationeller Kunstschatz in München". Focus (in German). 3 November 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013.