GOLDSCHMIDT Arthur (EN)

Forced to close his Berlin gallery in 1935 and to flee Germany in 1937, Arthur Goldschmidt became one of the managers of the firm Paul Graupe et Cie in Paris. He was in contact with Karl Haberstock and Hans Wendland, before leaving for Havana in 1941.

The J. & S. Goldschmidt Company (1907-1937)

In the middle of the 19^th century, two brothers, Jacob and Selig Goldschmidt, opened a shop in Frankfurt for the sale of old books, Judaica and objets d’art. Over the decades, the family company, “J. & S. Goldschmidt,” established in a handsome building on the Kaiserstrasse, developed a clientele of private persons and dealers. In 1905, aware of the development of the American market, they opened an antenna in New York.¹ Arthur Goldschmidt, grandson of one of the two founders, made his début in the business in 1907 in the parent company in Frankfurt, then joined a new branch created in 1921 in Berlin, on Viktoriastrasse, in the neighborhood bordering on the Tiergarten, home to a number of well-known galleries.² Everything was set for the company to consolidate its prestige, and the signs of a wide-ranging business opened new prospects. The “J. & S. Goldschmidt” company had in fact bought a few shares in the consortium that had purchased exceptional pieces from the Guelph Treasure, sold by the duke of Brunswick in early October 1929. The economic crisis that followed the crash in New York at the end of the same month greatly undermined the future of that affair.

The situation continued to worsen as the government put in place the anti-Semitic measures of the Third Reich, aiming to exclude Jews from economic life. In that unfavorable context, Arthur Goldschmidt closed the Victoriastrasse rooms in 1935 and moved nearby, on Bellevuestrasse, subletting the large Berlin auction house of Paul Graupe, with whom he strengthened his collaboration from then on.³ In January 1937, management of the Berlin branch was transferred to Hertha Sohne, who knew the company well, having worked there earlier as secretary.⁴ On discovering that Goldschmidt had set up in France, the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts informed him in November 1937 that he no longer fulfilled the necessary conditions to remain registered, that from then on he was forbidden to make any commercial transaction in Germany and that he must close the Frankfurt and Berlin galleries within two months. In the beginning of 1938, the lawyer Reinhard Moral began procedures for striking him off the commercial register. Thus ended the “J. & S. Goldschmidt” company, eighty years after its creation in Frankfurt.

Paul Graupe & Cie (1937-1941)

Arthur Goldschmidt had in fact left Berlin and, after passing through London, arrived in Paris in May 1937. In order to resume his activities, he bought shares in “Paul Graupe & Cie,” created 8 July 1937 and whose object was the sale of paintings and objets d’art.¹ The capital declared was 200,000 F, or 400,500 F shares distributed among five associates: Isidor Riemer (220 shares), Paul Graupe (80 shares), Arthur Goldschmidt (50 shares), Alice Reis (25 shares) and Käthe Simon (25 shares).² Even the direction of the company was assured by three managers who, in the spring of 1938 were Paul Graupe, Käthe Simon and Arthur Goldschmidt. The managers had the broadest powers to act in the company’s name and could carry out any commercial transaction. However, it was stipulated that the signature of two managers was necessary for the company Arthur Goldschmidt to be engaged; this cautious provision was invoked later on by Paul Graupe to contest certain transactions concluded by Arthur Goldschmidt.

The Paul Graupe company was able to undertake a few affairs before the start of the war. Thus it received several paintings and a few objects entrusted with them for storage by the Dutch collector Fritz Gutmann; Arthur Goldschmidt took care of organizing the transfer from Heemstede to Paris during the month of April 1939. He also concluded several sales, such as that of a Rubens preparatory study, La Conversion de saint Paul, to a rich Viennese art historian and collector, count Antoine Seilern.³ He also took part in certain auctions, winning the bid, for Duveen, of two large white marble vases executed by Clodion, at the Pereire sale of June 1937.⁴

The outbreak of the war destroyed all hope of commercial prosperity. When the German troops invaded Poland, Paul Graupe was in Switzerland, where he usually spent long periods of time during the summer, and Arthur Goldschmidt was in Paris. Though stripped of German citizenship,⁵ he was nonetheless considered to be a national of an enemy state by the French authorities and on 13 September 1939 was interned, first at the Colombes stadium and then at the Villebon camp, near Chartres.⁶ Liberated by the 21 October 1939 decision of the Commission interministérielle permanente de criblage (Interministerial Screening Committee), he returned to Paris and settled in a rented apartment on the Esplanade des Invalides, 4 rue Fabert.⁷ Interned a second time by the French authorities on 13 March 1940, he was posted as a civilian worker to the 143rd Infantry regiment until the following 26 July.⁸

Cannes (1940-1941)

Arthur Goldschmidt then went to the south of France and settled in Cannes with his wife, Anne-Marie Senkel, whom he married in Paris in the spring of 1939.¹ He remained in touch with certain of his  German colleagues, also exiles like himself, in particular Herbert Engel and Alfons Heilbronner, who were in Nice.² Like many other refugees, as the months went by his financial situation became more worrying and the necessity to leave France more urgent. The J.& S. Goldschmidt Company had been dissolved, but he remained one of the three managers of Paul Graupe & Cie.

He had been able to have sent to Cannes four paintings, and a few objects remained Place Vendôme, but the majority of the stock had been put in storage in Paris, in the same place where Fritz Gutmann had stored his artworks. The German dealer Karl Haberstock was concerned about what would become of this collection. Early in 1941, he went to see Gutmann, who was trying to emigrate, and made him consent to give over to him a few works, some of them part of the lot transferred to Paris in 1939.³ In February 1941, Haberstock met with Goldschmidt in Cannes, who made the necessary arrangements so that the paintings in storage among them could be given over to him.⁴ Although Haberstock had wanted to meet Goldschmidt  in order to gain possession of Gutmann’s paintings, they also spoke of the possibility of acquiring other works held by Paul Graupe & Cie. Arthur Goldschmidt, in need of money to finance his departure abroad, accepted to give him four 17^th c. Dutch and Flemish paintings.⁵

Moreover, Goldschmidt remained in contact with Hans Wendland, a German dealer established in Switzerland, in business with Graupe for about ten years, and with whom Wendland held works in a shared account. Wendland, who made several trips to France during the Occupation, went to Cannes in the spring of 1941. He met with Goldschmidt, who gave him two paintings, one of van Dyck and the other of Altdorfer.⁶ Wendland paid him the small sum of 5,000 Swiss francs, which however was a precious aid for the financing of a future departure.⁷

Paul Graupe, informed of this sale only afterward, was extremely dissatisfied, as he had arrived in the United States in March 1941 and wanted those paintings to be sent to New York or paid for in dollars, which Wendland did not do.⁸

Havana, 1941-1945

Those transactions probably helped Arthur Goldschmidt to finance his departure. Unable to obtain an entry visa for the United States, like many others, he had to settle for another destination. His first stop was in Bilbao, where he left four paintings he had sent for from Paris in the British Consulate, and made the necessary arrangements for them to be sent to Paul Graupe.¹ He then went to Vigo, embarked for Havana, where he arrived on 3 September 1941 after a particularly painful crossing on the Navemar. Arthur Goldschmidt, who for a while had hoped to obtain a visa for the U.S., in the end remained until the end of the war in Havana, where, like many others, he probably lived precariously.²

Post-war in Paris

After the war, Arthur Goldschmidt lived first in New York, then in London, and finally returned to Paris, where he resumed a few commercial activities, independently from then on.¹ He worked essentially as a broker, participating in auctions, maintaining relations with dealers such as Seligmann and Duveen, patiently and discreetly seeking offers that might interest his regular clients. High in their ranks was count Antoine Seilern, living in London since 1939. Several times, Arthur Goldschmidt found drawings of old and modern masters for him, and in 1959, twenty years after having sold him La Conversion de saint Paul of Rubens, obtained two important paintings for him, one attributed to Rubens, L’Annonce de la mort de la Vierge, and the other by Pittoni, La Sainte Famille. These paintings are today in the Courtauld Institute.

Arthur Goldschmidt died in Switzerland in 1960.²