Reconstruction of the art collection of the Jewish Berlin banker Hugo Simon (1880-1950)

Background

The project focuses on the collection of the Jewish, Berlin banker, art collector, pacifist, politician and agriculturalist Hugo Simon (1880-1950), dispersed due to persecution under the National Socialist regime. The collection, built up between 1910 and 1933, comprised at least 150 works, among paintings, works on paper and sculptures, with an emphasis on German Expressionism and French Impressionism, but also including works by Old Masters and nineteenth-century artists. There was also an extensive library, furniture, carpets and antique glass.

Until Simons flight from Germany, this art collection was considered one of the most important in Berlin. Its existence spans the period from its creation around 1910 to its forced dissolution in the period from 1933 to 1945. After fleeing in 1933, Simon was able to transfer a majority of works to Switzerland and France, via Amsterdam. From 1934 he was forced to gradually sell works to finance his life in exile. Other works were confiscated by the ERR in Paris in 1942 and probably destroyed. After 1941 and until his death in 1950, Simon was exiled in Brazil; and, in 1945, only a few works remained under his control.

Other works of art that were on his estate in Seelow (Brandenburg), in 1933, were confiscated by tax authorities and sold. The majority are considered lost. Only four of these works were identified in the holdings of the Berlin National Gallery and restituted in 2007.

Objectives

The aim of the project is to reconstruct Hugo Simons art collection and contribute to the search for its whereabouts. The profile of the collection, its scope and the present location of individual works of art are to be systematically investigated via scientific methods of provenance research, from an art historical standpoint. Using sources available in archives, museums, art and auction dealers, the structure and scope of the collection will be systematically researched, all works identified, their path after 30 January 1933 traced, and their location determined, whenever possible. The circumstances under which works of art were confiscated, sold, destroyed or lost should be ascertained.

Simons place as an influential networker in the cultural and political life of Berlin exemplified by his commitment to the modern department of the National Gallery from 1919 onwards will play an important role. Research into exile networks and conditions of coerced sale will also be a relevant aspect of this investigation.

Planned publication of results

The foreseeable result of this research project is to create a publicly accessible inventory of the collection that will bear informed witness to this instructive collection, as well as its forced dissolution under the dictatorship of National Socialism.

(c) Nachfahren von Hugo Simon in Kooperation mit dem Kunstgeschichtlichen Seminar der Universität Hamburg Sammlung Hugo Simon