Curt Valentin (5 October 1902, Hamburg, Germany – 19 August 1954,

Forte dei Marmi Forte dei Marmi () is a sea town and ''comune'' in the province of Lucca, in northern Tuscany ( Italy). It is the birthplace of Paola Ruffo di Calabria, Queen of the Belgians from 1993 to 2013. Tourism is the principal activity of Forte dei Mar ...

, Italy) was a German-Jewish art dealer known for handling modern art, particularly sculpture, and works classified as "degenerate" and stolen from European museums by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

regime in Germany. After 1927 Curt Valentin worked for Alfred Flechtheim in Berlin. In 1934, he worked at Karl Buchholz Gallery,

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

. In 1937, he emigrated to America, and opened a modern art gallery, Bucholz gallery, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. He had permission to sell German art in America, from the Nazi authorities to help fund Hitler's war efforts. On June 30, 1939, Curt Valentin bid for art looted by the Nazis that was being auctioned at the Fischer Gallery in Lucerne on behalf of Alfred Barr who provided money donated to the Museum of Modern Art. In 1951 the gallery was renamed the Curt Valentin Gallery. His gallery operated from 1951, until a year after his death in 1954, and handled works by many notable artists including

Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and his ...

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Mo ...

, Marino Marini, Irving Kriesberg, and

Jacques Lipchitz Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a Cubism, Cubist sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, dominated by a synthetic sty ...

References

External links

"Curt Valentin in his gallery, ca. 1952"
Photography by Adolph Studly, at ''Archives of American Art'' *

Ludwig Meidner Ludwig Meidner (18 April 1884 – 14 May 1966) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker born in Bernstadt, Silesia. Meidner is best known for his painted, drawn, and printed portraits and landscapes, but is especially noted for ...

"Curt Valentin"
''MOMA''
''Marino Marini and Curt Valentin: The Rise of the Italian Sculptor in America.''"Artnews : MOMA's problematic provenances""Bridges from the Reich: The Importance of Émigré Art Dealers as Reflected in the Case Studies of Curt Valentin and Otto Kallir– Nirenstein"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valentin, Curt American art dealers 1902 births 1954 deaths Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States German art dealers