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German Lost Art Foundation
German Lost Art Foundation Berlin Branch Office
The Bavarian State Painting Collections are restituting the painting Interior with Children (The Siblings) by Jewish painter Lesser Ury (1861–1931) to the heirs of Berlin banker and art collector Dr. Curt Goldschmidt (1878–1947).
Provenance and collector
The first known owner of the painting was the Berlin art historian, publicist and collector Julius Elias (1861–1927), who possessed the work as early as 1905. Elias was an important patron of modern art who supported artists of the Berlin Secession, for example. By 1921 at the latest, the painting had come into the possession of the Berlin banker Curt Goldschmidt.
The painting Interior with Children (The Siblings) is a remarkable testimony to Jewish art and collecting history in the early twentieth century, linking the artistic work of the Jewish painter Lesser Ury to the collecting activities of two Jewish figures in the Berlin cultural scene.
The artist Lesser Ury
Born in Poland, Lesser Ury (born Leiser Leo Ury) became famous primarily as a chronicler of Berlin street and café scenes, while also creating impressive landscape paintings. This painting is an early work by the artist and is linked to his engagement with Dutch painting.
Curt Goldschmidt and his collection
Curt Goldschmidt, whose descendants will now receive the painting, was a partner and later owner of the Berlin banking firm Joseph Goldschmidt & Co., which was founded by his father in 1900. A lawyer and banker who held a doctorate, he was a key figure in the economic and social life of Berlin. He also maintained close ties with the art scene: Max Liebermann painted his portrait.
Goldschmidt’s banking firm came under economic and political pressure in the early 1930s, and the situation for Jewish entrepreneurs and bankers deteriorated dramatically when the National Socialists seized power. Antisemitic measures and political intervention ultimately led to the loss of the company and the family’s private assets. Bankruptcy proceedings were opened against Curt Goldschmidt’s assets on 23 September 1935, and as a result the family was forced to give up its prestigious apartment on Stülerstrasse in Berlin’s Tiergarten district. The entire inventory was auctioned off in November 1935 on the instructions of the bankruptcy administrator. Among the 350 lots in the auction was the painting Interior with Children (The Siblings) by Lesser Ury, with an estimated value of 800 reichsmarks. However, there is no evidence either that it was sold or who acquired it. The proceeds of the auction did not benefit Curt Goldschmidt, but were transferred to state authorities as part of the liquidation of assets.
After an unresolved gap in the work’s provenance, it appeared at the auction house Lempertz in Cologne in 1940, marked with a star in the catalogue to indicate that it came from a “non-Aryan” owner. The work was sold for 220 reichsmarks, though neither the consignor nor the buyer is known.
The Bavarian State Painting Collections acquired the painting in 1972 through the Munich gallery Neumeister from the stock of the art dealer Rudolf Neumeister, who had been in possession of the work since 1969, if not earlier. How and where Neumeister acquired the painting is not known.
Provenance research carried out by the Bavarian State Museums Agency established that the work was lost in connection with the Nazi persecution of its owner Curt Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt himself fled to Paris in 1937 and lived there for a time in hiding during the German occupation. His entire fortune was lost, and he died in Paris on 31 March 1947.
