Oscar Bondy

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Oscar Bondy (born October 19, 1870, in Vienna; died December 3, 1944, in New York) was an Austrian entrepreneur and art collector persecuted by the Nazis because of his Jewish heritage.

Contents

Life

Oscar Bondy, also known as Zucker-Bondy, owned sugar factories in Zdic and in České Meziříčí in Czechoslovakia, but had his business and private address in Vienna. His extensive collection of art [1] and musical instruments, which included the portfolio works ("Mappenwerke") of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and the family portrait of Martin Johann Schmidt, was also located in the apartment at Schubertring 3 in Vienna. [2]

In 1922 Oscar Bondy was named the heir of Nellie Bly. [3] [4]

Nazi persecution

After Austria's 1938 Anschluss with Hitler's Third Reich, Bondy, who was Jewish, escaped to Switzerland and later emigrated to the US, where he died in 1944. [5] [6]

In July 1938, the Zentralstelle für Denkmalschutz (Central Office for the Protection of Monuments) seized numerous objects from the Bondy Collection and transferred them to the Central Depot of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in the Neue Burg, Vienna. [7]

Bondy's extensive collection of rare music-related objects, was also confiscated soon after the Anschluss. [8]

Postwar

After the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, his widow Elisabeth fought a long struggle for the return of 2,000 pieces from the collection. [9] [10] [11] Postwar Austria imposed onerous export conditions that extracted forced "donations". [12] She died in Vienna in 1974.

The whereabouts of many of the artworks seized from Bondy's collection are unknown. Bondy's great-grandson Gerd von Seggern has been searching for them. [13]

In April 2021 questions arose about a 15th-century portrait of Mary Magdalene that the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco acquired in 1948 since after Bondy, the last known owner of the portrait was an important Nazi art dealer, Hans Wendland. [14]

According to the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, many of the artworks that had been restituted from Bondy's collection were subsequently sold on the New York art market, particularly through [Frederick] Mont. [15]

The Austrian Art Restitution Advisory Board continues to study the complicated fate of the Bondy collection, and issued a new report on November 5, 2021. [16] The Commission noted that a renewed examination of the restitution record of the Oscar Bondy Collection found that seven of the 99 artworks from the Bondy collection that had appeared at the Salzburg Museum as of 1940, had not been handed over to Elisabeth Bondy after the decision on their restitution. [17] The Austrian Advisory Board report also describes how Bondy was refused an export licence for certain restituted items, like the "Salzburg Stove", and thus unable to transfer them to a purchaser outside of Austria, which resulted in her donating them to the Salzburg Museum which prevented an issuing of an export licence until after the donation. [18]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Bondy, Oscar; Kende Galleries at Gimbel Brothers (1949). The renowned painting collection of the late Oscar Bondy: free public exhibition from Saturday, February twenty-sixth to time of sale: Public auction sale Thursday afternoon and evening March third at two-thirty and eight p.m. New York: Kende Galleries. OCLC   48790362.
  2. ↑ „‚Hoch entzückt‘ über NS-Raubkunst“, derstandard.at, 31. März 2008
  3. ↑ Nellie Bly's Will Filed, New York Times, 21. März 1922
  4. ↑ "GETS SUGAR STOCK HELD BY NELLIE BLY; Court Decides That Oscar Bondy of Vienna Owns Shares Found in Writer's Estate. WAS INTENDED AS A GIFT Letters Also Show That a Brooch Given by a Queen Had Been Lent to Mrs. Seaman". The New York Times. 1924-07-18. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  5. ↑ Diverse Quellen nennen unterschiedliche Todesjahre.
  6. ↑ "Lost Art Internet Database - Jüdische Sammler und Kunsthändler (Opfer nationalsozialistischer Verfolgung und Enteignung) - Bondy, Oscar". www.lostart.de. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  7. ↑ "Lost Art Internet Database - Jüdische Sammler und Kunsthändler (Opfer nationalsozialistischer Verfolgung und Enteignung) - Bondy, Oscar". www.lostart.de. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  8. ↑ Shapreau, Carla J. "The Vienna Archives: Musical Expropriations During the Nazi Era and 21st Century Ramifications" (PDF). Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Report, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Collections Online | British Museum". www.britishmuseum.org. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  10. ↑ "StackPath". www.visualarts.qld.gov.au. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  11. ↑ "HITLER'S ART LOOT TO BE AUCTIONED; Bondy Collection, Recovered From Linz Museum, Will Be Offered Here on Thursday". The New York Times. 1949-02-27. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  12. ↑ "Jewish Collectors and Collecting Virtual Issue". Oxford Academic. Retrieved 2021-11-13. The first efforts at restitution in Austria after the war were hampered not simply by the continuity of Nazi personnel but also by a 'devilishly perverse' and 'morally indefensible' tax which forced wealthy Jewish citizens to make further forced 'gifts' or 'donations' to Austrian museums in exchange for an export licence.[
  13. ↑ Nordwest-Zeitung (14 November 2013). "Geheime Gemälde Ganderkesee: Kunstfund strahlt auf Ganderkesee aus". www.nwzonline.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  14. ↑ Greschler, Gabriel (2021-04-30). "Investigation: San Francisco museums may hold Nazi-looted art". J. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  15. ↑ "Victory Overcoming Vice". collections.mfa.org. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  16. ↑ "Oscar Bondy Austrian Restitution Advisory Committee report 2021-11-05" (PDF). provenienzforschung.gv.at. Kommission für Provenienzforchung, Bundesministerium Kunst, Kulture, öffentlicher Dienst und Sport.
  17. ↑ ""Oscar Bondy Austrian Restitution Advisory Committee report 2021-11-05" (PDF). provenienzforschung.gv.at. Bundesministerium Kunst, Kulture, öffentlicher Dienst und Sport. Im Zuge der neuerlichen Überprüfung der 99 Zuteilungen an das heutige Salzburg Museum ab 1940 konnten sieben Objekte aus der Sammlung Oscar Bondy aufgefunden werden, die nach der Entscheidung über ihre Rückstellung nicht an Elisabeth Bondy übergeben worden waren (Beilage ./A). Stünden diese Objekte im Eigentum des Bundes, wäre somit der Tatbestand des § 1 Abs. 1 Z 2 Kunstrückgabegesetz erfüllt und eine Übereignung an die Rechtsnachfolger:innen nach Oscar Bondy (bzw. Elisabeth Bondy) zu empfehlen.
  18. ↑ "Oscar Bondy Austrian Restitution Advisory Committee report 2021-11-05" (PDF). provenienzforschung.gv.at. Gegenstände der Beilage ./C an das Salzburger Museum schenkte, bereits seit 1947 die Ausfuhrgenehmigung für große Teile der Sammlung Oscar Bondy vorlag, sieht der Beirat es als gegeben an, dass diese Widmung in engem zeitlichen und thematischen Zusammenhang mit einem Verfahren nach dem Ausfuhrverbotsgesetz im Sinne des § 1 Abs. 1 Z 1 Kunstrückgabegesetz steht. Der Beirat übersieht dabei nicht, dass die amtliche Ausfuhrgenehmigung zwar längst vorlag, dessen ungeachtet versuchte Museumsdirektor Rigobert Funke – ob in deren Kenntnis oder Unkenntnis –, auch noch 1949 für den „Salzburger Ofen" die Ausfuhr zu verhindern. So drohte er, nachdem dieser erst im Sommer 1949 in den Bergungsbeständen aufgefunden worden war, Elisabeth Bondy an, sie würde dafür eine Ausfuhrgenehmigung benötigen. Zudem schrieb er an das Bundesdenkmalamt, er könne eine solche Ausfuhr nicht befürworten. Zwar erhielt Elisabeth Bondys Rechtsanwalt, der sich dazu ebenfalls bei der Denkmalbehörde erkundigte, in der Folge die Bestätigung, dass keine Ausfuhrbewilligung für den Ofen mehr benötigt werde, dennoch stellte das Bundesdenkmalamt mit 12. Dezember 1949, sohin einen Monat nach der Schenkung der hier gegenständlichen vier Objekte, eine neuerliche, diesmal nur auf das Einzelobjekt „Salzburger Ofen" bezogene Ausfuhrbewilligung, wohl zur zolltechnischen Abwicklung, aus. Der Beirat kommt daher zu dem Ergebnis, dass der Erwerb der vier Gegenstände der Beilage ./C im Zusammenhang mit der Ausfuhrbewilligung für den ebenfalls rückgestellten „Salzburger Ofen" stand, da das Ausfuhrverfahren angesichts der erwähnten wiederholten Versuche von Seiten des Salzburger Museums, eine Genehmigung (nachträglich) zu verhindern, für die betroffenen Parteien noch nicht abgeschlossen schien, wie die erneute Ausstellung der Ausfuhrgenehmigung vom 12. Dezember 1949 zeigt. Der Beirat erkennt daher bei den einen Monat zuvor getätigten Schenkungen den gesetzlich geforderten „engen Zusammenhang mit einem daraus folgenden Verfahren nach den Bestimmungen des Bundesgesetzes über das Verbot der Ausfuhr von Gegenständen von geschichtlicher, künstlerischer oder kultureller Bedeutung"
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