Charlotte Weidler (1895–1983) was a German art dealer, curator and art historian. Her dealings concerning artworks from the collections of Paul Westheim and

Alfred Flechtheim Alfred Flechtheim (1 April 1878 – 9 March 1937) was a German Jewish art dealer, art collector, journalist and publisher persecuted by the Nazis. Early years Flechtheim was born into a Jewish merchant family; his father, Emil Flechtheim, was a g ...

during the Nazi–era have been the focus of several high-profile lawsuits.

Early activities

Weidler was born in Berlin and dealt in modern art. Initially a close friend of the German Jewish art collector and editor of

Das Kunstblatt ''Das Kunstblatt'' was a German art magazine published between 1917 and 1933 by Paul Westheim in Weimar Germany The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from ...

, Paul Westheim, she later betrayed him. The exact nature of her actions regarding Westheim's art collection has been the subject of much controversy, generating lawsuits, book and articles and speculation as to her motivations.

Curator at the Carnegie Institute of Art

Weidler began working as a curator for the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh while she was still in Berlin and continued after she emigrated to the United States in 1939, traveling between the two countries for work. She made the acquaintance of the Pittsburg steel magnate G. David Thompson and helped him build his collection. selected art to acquire and was responsible for bringing numerous important artworks into American museums. Reputed to be an important expert in German modern art. Weidler's correspondence with the Carnegie is considered to provide "unique insight and detail about the situation of artists in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

" and that her exchanges with Carnegie president Homer St. Gaudens are "an extraordinary source of information for provenance researchers about the location of artwork pre-war and the changing attitude towards modern art in Germany as the Nazis rose to power.".

Controversies and lawsuits

Weidler's friend, the Jewish art collector Paul Westheim fled Nazi Germany for Paris in 1933, leaving his important art collection in Weidler's care. After initially helping him, she cut off contact and, at end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she told Westheim that his paintings had been lost or destroyed. However this turned out not to be true, as after Westheim's death, Weidler began selling the very same paintings. Eventually someone who recognised one of the paintings informed Westheim's surviving family, who sued. In 2013, Westheim's daughter

Margit Frenk Margit Frenk Freund (in full, Margarita Ana María Frenk y Freund), sometimes known by her married name, Margit Frenk Alatorre (born 21 August 1925 in Hamburg), is a German-Mexican philologist, folklorist and translator. She has been an Academic N ...

filed a lawsuit demanded the return of four paintings estimated to be worth more than three million dollars, including

Max Pechstein Hermann Max Pechstein (31 December 1881 – 29 June 1955) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and a member of the Die Brücke group. He fought on the Western Front during World War I and his art was classified as Degenerate Ar ...

's "Portrait of Paul Westheim" and a watercolor by

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

. Weidler also claimed that the famous German Jewish dealer Alfred Flechtheim bequeathed paintings to her, but this assertion was also contested in several lawsuits. In 2009, the family of the deceased artist Georg Grosz filed a claim against the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

for the return of three paintings that Charlotte Weidler had sold to the MoMa saying that Grosz's art dealer Alfred Flechtheim had gifted them to her. The Grosz family criticized Weidler's account as false, submitting evidence that the paintings had transited through a Dutch auction house Mak Van Waay known for dealing in looted art. Weidler's testimony played a crucial role in the lawsuit. Some historians have tried to explain Weidler's actions as the result of a frustrated love affair with Westheim. Weidler also played a role in dealing with the property of the photographer (Else) Neulander Simon. Persecuted as a Jew, Simon was "forced to hand the (photography) studio over to her friend Charlotte Weider.” Simon was deported to the concentration camp at Majdanek-Lubin and died in 1944.

Notable artworks

Notable works that Weidler sold as her own include

George Grosz George Grosz (; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objec ...

' work
''Portrait of the Poet Herrmann-Neisse''
(1927); ''Self-Portrait with a Model;'' and ''Republican Automatons''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weidler, Charlotte Women art historians German art curators 1895 births 1983 deaths People from Berlin German emigrants to the United States German art historians Art and cultural repatriation after World War II American women curators American curators German women curators