Emma Ranette Budge (née Lazarus; 17 February 1852,

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

– 14 February 1937) was a wealthy German Jewish

socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

and art collector .

Biography

Born in Hamburg in 1852, Budge was the daughter of the merchant Ludwig Lazarus. She married Henry Budge and they emigrated to the US. Budge and her husband returned to Hamburg in 1903. They lived at the so-called "Budge-Palais" on the Alster, Hamburg, and amassed a large art collection. In her will, Budge had specified that her art collection was not to be sold 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 ...

. However, a large portion of it was sold at auction in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

in October 1937, the proceeds going to a Budge estate account at M. M. Warburg & Co. bank. The bank was subsequently Aryanized, her Jewish executors dismissed, and her heirs defrauded of their money. At the 1937 auction, Otto and Magdalena Blohm bought seven 18th-century Italian

commedia dell'arte (; ; ) was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as , , and . Charact ...

porcelain figures that had been part of the Budge collection. Edward and Kiyi Pflueger later acquired the figures and in 2006 bequeathed them to the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

(MFA). The Budge heirs later demanded their return. In May 2017, the MFA reached a settlement with the Budge family.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Budge, Emma 1852 births 1937 deaths People from Hamburg Jewish women philanthropists German art collectors German socialites German women philanthropists 19th-century German women 20th-century German women 19th-century German Jews 20th-century German Jews Jews from Hamburg