Hugo Nathan (1861-1921) was a German Jewish banker and art collector.

Life

Hugo Nathan was a director at the

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

in Frankfurt am Main. He married Martha Adrianna Nathan (born 28 November 1874 in Frankfurt am Main, died 09 Décembre 1958 in Geneva, Switzerland ) Nathan died in 1921, leaving his art collection to his widow.

Art Collection

Nathan collected art. His collection included Dutch art (Josef Israels, "Alte Frau"), German art, with works by Max Liebermann ("Schreitende Bauerné, 1894/95, "Selbstbildnis" 1908, "Reiter am Meeresstrand" 1901, "Schulgang in Laren" 1899,), Wilhelm Trübner ("Kunstpause", "Brustbild einer Frau", "Blick auf Kloster Seon", "Kirchengang im Klster Seeon", "Atelierecke", "Waldinneres", "Vorgang ds Stift Neuburg", "Weg am Buchenwald", "Neustift bei Heidelberg", "Screinerwerkstatt") and Max Slevoft ("Spaziergan"), as well as Swiss art by Ferdinand Hodler (Aussicht vom Thunersee bei Niesen" 1876, "Jungfrau, Mönch und Eiger", "Mönch in Abendbeleuchtung"). In 1912 he purchased Van Gogh's The Diggers. In 1913, he lent artworks to an exhibition at the Kunstverein (July-September) entitled Frankfurter Kunstschatze.

Family and Nazi persecution

When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Nathan's widow Martha was persecuted because of her Jewish heritage. In January 1937, she fled Germany and moved to Paris, France where she obtained French citizenship. She returned briefly to Germany around May 1938 to sell her house, and was forced by the Nazi government to transfer six paintings remaining in her home to the Staedel Art Institute. She moved to Switzerland around 1939. After the Nazis occupied Paris in 1940, property that she had managed to store there was seized too She had managed, however, to move some paintings to safety Switzerland. The circumstances surrounding the sale of these paintings have been disputed in lawsuits.

Postwar claims for restitution

In May 2004, Nathan's heir contacted the

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the list of largest art museums, largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation a ...

after seeing Van Gogh's The Diggers on the museum website. The museum argued that a claim was time barred. Nathan's heirs also contacted the

Toledo Museum of Art The Toledo Museum of Art is an internationally known art museum located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio. It houses a collection of more than 30,000 objects. With 45 galleries, it covers 280,000 square feet and is currently in th ...

requesting the return of a Gauguin that she had sold in 1938 to three dealers. The Toledo Museum of Art filed a lawsuit against Nathan's heirs. In 2013, Simon J. Frankel and Ethan Forrest defended the museums' use of legal tactics such as declaratory judgement against Nathan. In 2015, the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) criticized the use of procedural defenses by museums and cited the Nathan case as an example. The heirs of Hugo and Martha Nathan registered 116 artworks lost to Nazi persecution on the German Lost Art Foundation Lostart database. In 2022, La Pauvresse de Village (Die Dorfarme also known as ''La Femme à la chèvre ou La Fagotière)'' by Gustav Courbet was the object of a settlement with the family.

Lawsuits concerning Hugo and Martha Nathan's art collection

Toledo Museum of Art v Claude George Ullin, et al.,

References