Časopis ARS 43 (2010) 2

Jana ŠVANTNEROVÁ

Obrazy (z) minulosti. Poštátňovanie umeleckých predmetov z majetku Židov a ich prevod do štátnych zbierok za Slovenského štátu (1939 – 1945)
[Pictures of the Past. The Expropriation of the Jewish Collections of Fine Arts and their Transfer to the State Collections during the Slovak State (1939 – 1945)]

(Resumé)

The article focuses on the issue of the looted Jewish art during the Slovak State (1939 – 1945) and represents the pioneer attempt to summarize all available information.

The substantial research was developed in 2009 as a PhDr. Thesis project at the Department of Art History and Culture, Trnava University in Trnava and thanks to the support and the cooperation of The Slovak National Museum – The Museum of Jewish Culture, The Archive of the Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic and The Slovak National Gallery.

The fundamental pillar of the research were fifty five files dating back to the 2nd World War reporting on the process of the expropriation of the Jewish property, evaluations, public sales and transfer to The Slovak Museum in Bratislava. These documents were for many years kept unexplored in The Archive of the Monuments Board of the SR. Apart from providing entirely new data regarding the Holocaust period, the documents surprisingly revealed participation of the two major figures of the Slovak art history in the whole process. The freshly investigated archival evidence has brought new facts of the professional actions to the biographies of Dr. Vladimír Wagner (1900 – 1955) and Dr. Alžbeta Güntherová-Mayerová (1905 – 1973).

Declaration of the Slovak State on March 14, 1939 was followed by acceptance of the safety pact acknowledging the cooperation of the newly declared state with Nazi Germany. As stated by the Slovak historian Ivan Kamenec, it was out of debate that successful solution of the so-called Jewish question had been the unwritten condition. Following legal rules will fully concern patrimonial terms as adumbrated by the research topic. In August 1940, Jews had to submit official records on their property mentioning also art, jewellery and art collections. Consequently, Jews were robbed of their businesses, land, real estates and movable property. In October 1940, all their money and personal belongings had to be stored in the bank frozen deposits.

The strictest laws against Jews based on the pure biological racism were enacted in September 1941 and are generally known as “The Jewish Codex”. Objects of the fine art and art handicraft became state property and as such were to be sold on public sales for the benefit of the state. After the intervention of The Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment (thereinafter MENE) in November 1941, the government decided that all objects of outstanding artistic and historical value would be taken out of the sales and be made available for the state collections. On the internal files concerning the above-mentioned Jewish fine art transaction was written “from Dr. Wagner”. Therefore, there is a reason to believe that this initiative came directly from Dr. V. Wagner, the head of one of the six major offices in the MENE – The Office of Monument Preservation, Museums and Fine Art. Dr. Wagner worked in The State Office for Monument Preservation since 1927 together with his colleagues, Dr. Jan Hofman and Dr. Ing. arch. Václav Mencl. Both of them were expelled from the new Slovak State in 1939 for being Czech. In the same year Wagner joined Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party. Thus, he remained unrivalled in the sphere of the monument preservation and secured by the party until 1943, when he seceded.

The procedure of gathering Jewish art property followed this pattern. Objects were gathered in the local tax bureaus all over the Slovak State, and professionals from the MENE were sent to evaluate them. From the accessible documents, we know that there were only two art historians executing these actions – Dr. Wagner and Dr. Güntherová-Mayerová. In 1943, Wagner visited the cities of Trnava, Nitra, Banská Štiavnica, Poprad, Prešov, Martin, Ružomberok, Liptovský Mikuláš, Spišská Nová Ves and Levoča. During the same year, Güntherová-Mayerová visited the cities of Bratislava, Žilina, Čadca, Považská Bystrica, Trenčín, Nové Mesto nad Váhom and Piešťany. Unlike Wagner, whose files of the evaluated objects are very superficial and many times, for his careless handwriting, even difficult to read, his colleague Güntherová-Mayerová was very detailed in descriptions of the objects’ qualities and also very effective in defining authorship. From the incomplete files, we know about 1 216 art objects with estimated value of 617 171 Slovak Crowns. In the first line, 180 known objects from the 15 known towns with the estimated value of 382 897 Slovak Crows were chosen for the transition to the state museums and galleries. Eventually, only 14 paintings and the collection of 433 coins were chosen. All the other items were sold. Even thought in the spring 1943 came out the inappropriate manipulation with Jewish goods, the profit from the public auctions grew up to 108 millions Slovak Crowns.

The reason of such a low number of objects transferred to the Slovak State collections was rather prosaic. Inspired by the situation in the Nazi Germany and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the MENE representatives assumed that the chosen objects would automatically, as already being the state property, be taken over by the galleries and museums of the state.

The unsuspected surprise was caused by the law prohibiting free relinquishment of any property within the departments of the state administration. Therefore, the MENE was forced to pay the Ministry of Finance (thereinafter MF) the full estimated value. In January 1944, the MENE resigned from the 180 chosen objects due to the shortage of money. During the February, new selection was made, only from the Bratislava Jews’ collections. During the following few months, the situation was unclear and changed for better only in June 1944 thanks to the final decision of the Government. The transaction was fully accomplished in December 1944 when the amount of 223 124 Slovak Crowns was paid by the MENE to the MF. All 14 paintings and additional collection of 433 coins became property of The Slovak Museum in Bratislava.

The executed research has shown that 7 of these paintings belong nowadays to The Slovak National Gallery (thereinafter SNG). These paintings were carried over in 1950 and 1951 from The Slovak National Museum to the newly established SNG (1948). Other paintings transferred in 1944 to The Slovak Museum just like all the others are temporarily lost. Hopefully, the situation will change thank to the disclosed lists of the looted art in the above-mentioned PhDr. Thesis. As for now, we may conclude together with German historian Stefan Koldehoff that “the pic¬tures are among us”. The variety of the looted art varied from paintings by artists of the Jewish origin, Slovak and European modern art movement, old masters, academic and genre paintings of the 19th century, to the Oriental art, Slovak folk art and sculptures of the Christian saints. Among the artist of Jewish origins were František Reichentál, Imrich Weiner-Kráľ, Vilmos Csaba Perlrott, Armin Stern, Jehuda Epstein, Armand Schönberger and Frida Salvendy. From the representatives of the Slovak modern art movements, these names should be mentioned: Janko Alexy, Edmund Gwerk, Zolo Palugyay, Miloš Alexander Bazovský and Vladimír Droppa. Apart from these, Käthe Kollwitz and Gino Severini were also represented by their works.

As it is generally impossible to find out the origi¬nal owner, the fact of identifying the owner of two works by Gyula Szent Istvány is outstanding. His large-scale paintings depicting hard life of miners were extremely wanted by two mining towns – Gelnica and Banská Štiavnica. The representatives of the both municipalities wrote the letters of request to the MENE for the right to obtain the paintings “from the property of Jew Bárkány from Prešov”. In 1943, it was decided that painting would go Gelnica. Nowadays, the painting depicting The Death of a Miner belongs to The Museum of Mining in Gelnica. The second painting, known as Prayer of Miners or Miners Before Going Down to the Shaft belongs to the SNG as the result of the purchase in 1955. The original owner of the paintings was Ing. Eugen Bárkány (1885 – 1967), building constructor and establisher of The Jewish Museum in Prešov (1928 – 1938). He knew painter Gyula Szent Istvány (1881 – 1930) personally from the times of the 1st World War they spent together in the Russian captivity.

Due to the activities of Dr. Güntherová-Mayerová and Dr. Wagner, the image of the Jewish fine arts properties emerges from the past. One may assume that their active service in the Slovak State machinery was unavoidable or one may doubt it. But there is one fact that should not be forgotten. All the precious documents had been for long years guarded by Dr. Wagner himself and were not destroyed. Accordingly, the awkward truth could be revealed.

English translation by J. Švantnerová