Robert Edsel's Blog

I am often asked by friends and acquaintances “Where can we see your presentation?” Too often it seems the locations are quite a distance from Dallas. In fact, I have spoken recently in Vancouver, New York City on several occasions, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and most recently Chattanooga last Thursday evening. What a crowd we had in Chattanooga…more than 500 people attended my lecture at the University of Tennessee!

Fortunately, the fine people at the University Park United Methodist Church have invited me to speak at their great facility on October 28 beginning at 6:30pm. Unlike many of my other speaking engagements, the Church has generously made the evening free to all those who attend. We have worked with officials at UMC to customize a presentation that pays particular emphasis to Hitler and the Nazis’ looting and destruction of churches, synagogues, and other places of worship all as a lead into the telling of the story about civilizations’ heroes, the Monuments Men and women. I will be including several short excerpts from our documentary film, The Rape of Europa, as part of my presentation. It will be a special evening which I hope you can attend…and please bring a friend!

On Thursday I travel to Kansas City to speak at one of the world’s greatest museums, the Nelson-Atkins. This speaking engagement, part of their annual Mary Atkins Series, has sold out for the first time ever — more than 550 people are expected to attend. I am excited about speaking to audiences anywhere, especially groups this large. The Question and Answer portion of the evening always unearths interesting stories and contributes to the information we continue to gather about this important part of our world heritage.

I hope to see you at the University Park United Methodist Church on October 28. The address is 4024 Caruth Blvd at Preston Road (click here for map).

The legacy of the world’s greatest theft during World War II by Hitler and the Nazis remains with us in so many tangible ways. Few reminders are more stark than looking at an auction catalogue from Sotheby’s or Christie’s. Rarely is there a sale of any magnitude that doesn’t include at least one painting or other work of art stolen by the Nazis at some point in time during their chokehold on Western Europe. Most of those times the painting was stolen for Adolph Hitler’s planned Führer Museum in Linz.

There are two major events that occur in London each July, both of which are near and dear to my interests. The first is, of course, The All England Championships, or Wimbledon as it is more widely known. The other are the Old Master Sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s which always follow the week after bringing most all the painting dealers from around the world together as well as many private collectors. These sales are particularly interesting this year as Sotheby’s has four paintings for sale that were looted during World War II, all subsequently restituted and now being sold by the current owners, while Christie’s has one. (These numbers pertain to their “main event” evening sales respectively; there may be other examples in their lesser sales.)

The phrases included in the provenance listings are enough to curl your blood: “Confiscated by the Nazi authorities in 1939 for the planned Führer Museum in Linz”; “Looted during the Second World War”; “Forced Sale of Liquidation Stock”; “Secured by the Nazi authorities and confiscated by the Vugesta (the Gestapo looting authority)”; and “Confiscated by the Russian Army”. I underscore that all paintings were subsequently restituted to their rightful owners, some shortly after the war, others only recently. But this underscores the current nature of this remarkable period in history as items once considered the prize of the Nazi thieves reenter the commercial market voluntarily rather than under threat or theft. These are exciting times.

Anne d’Harnoncourt, the world famous and beloved director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, died quite unexpectedly Sunday evening at her home in Philadelphia. She was just 64 years of age. Art and culture were imbued in her soul.

Rene, her father, was not only a painter and scholar on Mexican and Native American art, but also served as the director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City from 1949-1968. Anne earned her master’s degree from the Courtauld Institute, where she was a classmate of my dear friend, Ted Pillsbury. Ted went on to greatness as the director of the Yale Center for British Art and later the Kimbell, while Anne worked briefly at the Tate Gallery before beginning her storied career in Philadelphia in 1967 as an assistant. After a brief stint as the assistant curator of 20th century art at the Art Institute in Chicago, Anne returned to Philadelphia where in 1982 she became the museum’s director and eventual CEO.

During her tenure she did it all, designing innovative installations, developing blockbuster exhibitions that staked a permanent claim for the city of Philadelphia among the elite of art museums in our Nation, and energizing a donor base who in turn oversaw astonishing growth of this remarkable institution. She walked with kings and paupers with equal comfort and understood the museum’s responsibility to appeal to all citizens of the city–those that loved art as well as those yet to discover it. All the while, she preserved the time honored tradition of — and continually redefined respect for — the object. "What we want is for new things to be great of their kind, and for each new work to have conversations with the rest of the collection."

I was in Philadelphia Monday and Tuesday at the invitation of National Endowment for the Humanities’ Chairman Dr. Bruce Cole and the ongoing roll-out of the PICTURING AMERICA program. As often happens the greatest supporters of the arts are also those first in line to assist Dr. Cole and the NEH’s innovative programs. Thus it was no surprise to meet a remarkable group of volunteers and civic leaders at the truly one-of-a-kind home of Martha McGeary Snider, where I was asked to briefly speak about the Monuments Men. It was, however, a bittersweet occasion.

Everyone had tears in their eyes over the loss of Anne d’Harnoncourt. Everyone. The measure of loss was palpable and hung over yesterday’s otherwise great PICTURING AMERICA ceremony. Several people I met could not speak as the wound was so great. Indeed, Anne’s loss is truly immeasurable. Few people are truly irreplaceable: she is an exception. Her passing highlights the crisis in our museum leadership ranks, a subject I will be addressing in a lengthy blog next week.

The great city of Philadelphia, which Anne loved so much, will recover, and in time her legacy advanced by the same group of supporters she cultivated and who cultivated her over many years. But those challenges ahead belong to tomorrows. Today we mourn the loss of this great friend and champion of the arts.