Klimt gustave

1940 · 2713 — 1940. Punched twice at the left edge. In fine condition. 1 page typed document. <p><br /> Important document about the Nazi-looted and subsequently privately sold Klimt’s masterpiece the Water Serpents II.<br /> <p><p><br /> Gustav Klimt’s Water Serpents II was painted between 1904 and 1907 and was originally commissioned for and owned by Jenny Eugenie Steiner neé Pulitzer; 1863–1958 the wife and at the time of the issue of the present document already the widow of a wealthy Viennese Jewish industrialist. The painting was apparently an asset of the late husband’s silk company “Brüder Steiner†as it is referred to in the document. In June 1938 after the Anschluss under the threat from the Nazis Jewish herself Jenny Steiner fled from Vienna and the painting together with several of her valuable tangibles including other works by Klimt and Egon Schiele was confiscated as Jewish property.<br /> <p><p><br /> In 1940 three of Steiner’s Klimt paintings including the Water Serpents II were offered on the sale of the leading Viennese auction house Dorotheum 458. Kunstauktion March 4–6.; the two other paintings were the Country House by the Atteree and the Portrait of Mäda Primavesi. Fleckner 2017 However by the intervention of Josef Bürckel then Gauleiter of Vienna the painting was withdrawn from the auction and sold privately to the Nazi filmmaker and alleged illegitimate son of Klimt Gustav Ucicky 1899–1961 through his second wife Inge Ingeborg Davis. The picture remained in Ucicky’s possession until his death in 1961 when his third wife Ursula née Kohn; b. 1922 inherited it. <br /> <p><p><br /> In 2013 Ursula Ucicky in agreement with the heirs of Jenny Steiner sold the Water Serpents II through Sotheby’s sharing the income 50/50. The painting reached the price of $112 million at the time the 6th most expensive painting in the world and the most expensive Klimt painting by then to be sold.<br /> <p><p><br /> The present typewritten and signed secretarial note Aktenvermerk. Betrifft: Ölgemälde des Malers Klimt “Wasserschlangenâ€Â was written on behalf of Hermann Drum 1911–1945 the administrative assistant Adjutant of Josef Bürckel the Gauleiter and later Reichsstatthalter too of Reichsgau Vienna in office as Gauleiter from 30 January 1939 as Reichsstatthalter from April 1 1940 until 2 August 1940 in regard the withdrawing from the auction and the private sale of Klimt’s Water Serpents II. See also in Lillie’s Was einmal war; note that in the book the intervener erroneously ascribed as Reichsstatthalter Baldur von Schirach in fact it was Gauleiter Bürckel. In the text Drum’s secretary summarizes how the painting ended up at the Dorotheum sale with the estimated value of 6000 Reichsmark states the wish of the Gauleiter that the painting should be sold privately to Mrs. Ucicky and delineates a plan developed together with dr. Deigelmaier an official from the local revenue service for withdraw and sell the painting out of the sale if an appropriate purchase offer would be made privately “ich halte einen Preis von 8–9000 RM für angemessen†/ “I think a price of 8–9;000 RM is reasonableâ€. The secretary misspells the name “Ucicki†and also mixes up the family relations claiming Mrs. Ucicky the descendant of Klimt.<br /> <p><p><br /> Rare and important document related to one of the most well-known Nazi-looted pictures. <br /> <p><p><br /> Literature: Fleckner U. et al. Markt und Macht Der Kunsthandel im »Dritten Reich«. De Gruyter 2017. pp. 304–9; Lillie S. Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens. Czernin 2003.<br /> <p>. unknown