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Karl Mayländer

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Austrian art collector and businessman (1872–1941)
Portrait of Karl Maylander, Egon Schiele, 1917.

Karl Mayländer (2 October 1872 - deported 23 October 1941) was an Austrian art collector and businessman who was deported in 1941 from Vienna to Łódź, in German-occupied Poland, by the Nazis and later murdered in the Shoah.

Professional life

Mayländer was an art collector and critic who was a member of the board of the Volksheim Ottakring (later the Volkshochschule Ottakring), an adult education school which also hosted art exhibitions. Mayländer acquired the work of many young Austrian artists, including many drawings by Egon Schiele whom he knew personally.

Nazi persecution and murder

After Austria's Anschluss with Nazi Germany, Mäylander was persecuted because of his Jewish heritage. He was deported in 1941 from Vienna to Poland and murdered.

Restitution claims for looted art

Art by Schiele owned by Mayländer has been the subject of restitution claims by his descendant in New York, Eva Zirkl. In 2010, an Austrian commission set up by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Arts, Education, and Culture investigated the ownership history, or provenance, of five paintings by Egon Schiele: "Girl with Sunglasses", "Portrait of Olga Gallus", "Proletrairan Children", "Portrait of Heinrich Benesch", and 'Portrait of a boy" and recommended that the paintings be restituted to Mayländer's heirs. However the commission had no authority to force a private museum like the Leopold Museum to follow its recommendations. In 2016, after negotiations, the Leopold Museum in Vienna agreed to return two of the five watercolour paintings by Schiele to Zirkl.

In 2020, Zirkl, then 98 years old, sued the estate of Robert (Robin) Lehman for Portrait of the Artist's Wife" by Egon Schiele, which had belonged to Mayländer before he was deported and killed.

Books were also looted from Mayländer and in 2017 the British Library restituted a copy of a German play that it realized had belonged to him.

See also

List of claims for restitution for Nazi looted art

The Holocaust in Austria

References

  1. Shoah-Opfer Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes, Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  2. "Karl Mayländer, Exlibris- und Kunstsammler, 1872- Deportiert am 23.10.1941. – Jazz und Exlibris" (in German). Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  3. Egon Schiele: The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky collections. Prestel Publishing, 2005. p. 119.
  4. Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlichen Dienst und Sport. "Dossier Mayländer Beschluss 18 11 2010" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. "Five Schiele Watercolors – Leopold Museum and Eva Zirkl — Centre du droit de l'art". plone.unige.ch. Retrieved 2022-12-26. 2010: A commission established by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Arts, Education, and Culture to evaluate claims under Austria's Art Restitution Act recommended that the five watercolors be restituted to Zirkl.
  6. Austrian museum returns Nazi plundered artwork. The Local/AFP, 7 April 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  7. "Five Schiele Watercolors – Leopold Museum and Eva Zirkl — Centre du droit de l'art". plone.unige.ch. Retrieved 2022-12-26. However, as a private institution, the Leopold Museum did not have to follow the Commission's recommendation. April 2016: Negotiations resulted in the return of two of the five drawings to Zirkl.
  8. Leopold Museum returns two Schiele drawings to New York heir. The Art Newspaper, 7 April 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  9. Egon Schiele Works to Be Returned to Descendant of Holocaust Victim. ArtsBeat, The New York Times, 7 April 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  10. "Bronx woman in legal battle with Lehman family over $8M painting looted by Nazis". www.lootedart.com. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  11. "International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR)-Case Summary-Lehman Foundation, Inc. v. Zirkl / Bar v. Portrait of the Artist's Wife". www.ifar.org. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  12. "British Library returns book stolen by the Nazis to its rightful owner". www.lootedart.com. Retrieved 2023-11-05.

External links

Media related to Karl Mayländer at Wikimedia Commons


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