During World War II, the Nazis waged a relentless campaign to loot many of the great art treasures of Europe. The legendary Rothschild family was among the victims. And while much of what was stolen from them was recovered by Allied troops, it was decades later until all the art was returned to the family.
It turns out, though, that part of the Rothschild collection had one final journey to take, to the Museum of Fine Arts. And WGBH Arts Editor Jared Bowen spoke to woman behind this major donation.
JARED BOWEN: What is this moment like? I mean, the objects in your family have had such an extraordinary history, to be collected, to be in the family, and of course, to be looted by the Nazis, and now you’re passing them on again.
BETTINA BURR: Yes, but it feels like a homecoming, really, to have them here in the Museum of Fine Arts, where I expect they’ll be well cared for and perhaps enjoyed by people, which is my hope.
In reading about your family’s history, I was really struck by—it seems that it became a mission in the family, especially among the women, to seek the restitution of these pieces and bring them home to the family. Was it so deliberate? Was it something you spoke about with your mother, your grandmother?
It was primarily initiated by the women, largely because their husbands were either no longer there—they died—or were not well. And both women were forces of nature, and so they took on this project because they cared deeply about it. My grandmother had lived with these works of art. My mother had grown up with them, and they felt very strongly that they should be back in the family’s arms. They had been taken, as you know, by the Nazis in 1938, and then they were restituted after the Second World War; but for every object that was returned, another was kept back by the Austrian museums.
Yeah, I mean this is the really fascinating part: it enters Hollywood by some degree, too, because your family worked with the Monuments Men to identify pieces that were in your family. And how did it come to be that you were only allowed to bring one piece for those that had to stay back in Europe?
It’s a great question. The Monuments Men of course recovered the loot, and my grandmother went to the salt mines and saw the crates that the Monuments Men had labeled “AR” for Alphonse Rothschild, and so on. The custom was for the art objects to be returned to the country of origin, not to the individuals. And then the country would return them, or restitute them, to the individuals.
When my grandmother went to lay claim to the works, the government told her that there was a law passed in 1918 that forbade art exports. And as a result, if she wanted to take anything out—and this was after long negotiation; it took at least two years—that she would have to donate to Austria, works that Austrians wanted to keep in their museums; and so the works stayed in Austria for 50 years, until finally my mother was able to get them back.
What did that do to the family’s psyche in those 50 years to know that they were being held and to know why: the horrific history, to begin with, with the Nazi looting and what had happened with the Nazi party taking over. How did that impact the family to be separated from these pieces?
Well, to be perfectly honest, my mother took it upon herself to go back to the museums on a regular basis and to check on the works of art. And she never looked back, so it was not something that hung over us like a dark cloud. We really were not that aware of it. Of course, we knew the works of art in the museums that were ours, but there had been a contract that was created when the works were left there, and what was so superb on the part of the Austrian minister of culture, Elisabeth Gehrer, was that she said, this contract is legally correct but morally not, and we have to change that. And as a result, over a period of two years where my mother worked very hard—documents would appear and then disappear—with two journalists, who had for a long time done research on what they called the second looting of Jewish families by the Austrian museums, my mother was able to get the law changed and have the works restituted.
These are very beautiful pieces, very ornamented. What do they tell us, what do they tell you about your forbearers about how they collected, who they were, how they lived?
They loved French 18th-century art and Dutch 17th-century art. I think they particularly loved the French—that period of French art making was a time when craftsmanship reached the highest level. French decorative arts were really at the top of the charts then in all of Europe, and my family valued that. They also loved the Dutch works of art because I think they felt that they were simply beautifully, beautifully painted. They had other works of art, by English masters, for instance. They also had wonderful works on paper that were by German artists, as well as Austrian artists, in addition to the French, the English, Italians, Dutch, etc.
I’ll end this interview where I began, going back to the MFA, where the public can see your pieces, your family’s pieces next week when they go on exhibition. Is there a mission that you have in mind; is there something you want to take away—a lesson learned?
Well I think that people will probably enjoy the story, mostly, because it’s a wonderful story in that it has a good ending. I think that the works of art are beautiful, beautiful pieces, and I hope that people will also enjoy looking at them and take in their artistry and craftsmanship and come away feeling like this is where these pieces belong, in the museum, and God bless that they’re there.
"Restoring a Legacy: Rothschild Family Treasures" is on view at the MFA from March 1, 2015 to June 21, 2015.
