Reconstruction of the Art Collection of David Leder, Chemnitz/Berlin

David Leder (1888-1947) started to collect works of art in the 1910s. He worked as a merchant in the textile industry first in Chemnitz, later in Berlin. David Leder collected paintings and graphic art. He was friends with Emil Orlik, Otto Th. W. Stein, Max Liebermann and Lovis Corinth; Liebermann and Corinth portrayed him and his wife Lola several times. Liebermanns and Corinths works of art were numerous in Leder's collection. Other artists represented with their works, known so far, include Paul Cézanne, Albrecht Dürer, Karl Hofer, Edvard Munch, Will Nowak, Rembrandt, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Lesser Ury, and Maurice de Vlaminck. By 1925, the collection comprised approximately 600 works of art.

In 1925, David Leder consigned part of his collection of paintings and prints in two auctions at Cassirer and Helbing and at Amsler & Ruthardt in Berlin. Not all the lots were sold.

David Leder and his family were persecuted as Jews from 1933. Its not known which objects were part of his art collection at this time. The research project will reconstruct the collection. David Leder was deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during the Pogrom Night in 1938 and imprisoned there. He had to pay Punitive Tax, Reichs Flight Tax and the Dego-levy. In 1939 he managed to leave Germany together with his wife Lola and emigrate to London.

As a result of persecution, David and Lola Leder were deprived of paintings, graphic art, and part of the library through the confiscation of the removal goods, and of further works of art and another part of the library through the confiscation of loans to the Berlin Jewish Museum. The research project will also investigate persecution-related sales from 1933 onwards.

The project aims to research the composition of David Leder's art collection, to reconstruct the origin and whereabouts of the artworks from the collection, and to identify artworks.