Portrait of Else Glaser (wife of Curt Glaser) by Edvard Munch
Curt Glaser (May 29, 1879 (Leipzig) – November 23, 1943 (Lake Placid, New York, USA)) was a German Jewish art historian, art critic and collector who was persecuted by the Nazis.[1]
Glaser's parents, the businessman Simon Glaser (1841–1904) and his wife Emma Glaser, née Haase (1854–1927), moved to Berlin soon after their son was born. Glaser, born of the Jewish faith, converted to the Protestant faith around 1911. He had two brothers, the physician Felix Glaser (1874–1931) and the art dealer Paul Glaser (1885–1946).[2]
Curt Glaser received his doctorate in medicine in Munich in 1902 and then began studying art history in Freiburg, Munich, and Berlin, where he worked with Heinrich Wölfflin in 1907 with a thesis on Hans Holbein the Elder.[3]
As an art historian, he campaigned for the re-evaluation of old German art and, together with Karl Scheffler, edited the series Deutsche Meister, published by Insel Verlag. At the same time he dealt with contemporary art and is one of the early supporters of Expressionist art in Germany, as well as one of the first art scholars to deal with East Asian art.
In addition to his academic work, Glaser wrote regular art reviews for the daily newspaper Hamburgischer Correspondent from 1902 to 1910. From 1909 he contributed to the journal Kunst und Künstler published by Karl Scheffler and was also the Berlin editor of the Kunstchronik.
In 1924 Glaser became Director of the Berlin Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek [State Art Library].[4]
From 1918 to 1933 he was the art reporter for the daily newspaper Berliner Börsen-Courier.
In 1933 he married Maria Milch (daughter: Eva Renate 1935–1943) .
When the National Socialists took power, Glaser was persecuted because of his Jewish descent, and in June 1933, he emigrated to Switzerland. Before emigrating, he was forced to sell large parts of his collection below value through the Max Perl auction house.[5]
The couple managed to emigrate to the USA via Cuba in 1941 and settled in New York. Glaser died in 1943 after a long illness without having found another professional foothold in exile.
Glaser's descendants in Germany, Brazil and the US have successfully petitioned museums and private owners to return artworks.[6][7][8] Cologne's Ludwig Museum and Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum have both restituted artworks.[9][10]
In 2009 the UK Spoliation Advisory Committee considered a claim by Glaser's heirs against the Samuel Courtauld Trust (the Courtauld) for eight drawings acquired by Count Antoine Seilern (Seilern) at an auction of part of Glaser's collection held in Berlin in May 1933. The drawings were part of the Princes Gate bequest in 1978 to the Home House Society.[11]
On May 9, 2016, a memorial plaque was unveiled in the Berlin Art Library, Berlin-Tiergarten, Matthäikirchplatz 8.
In 2008 Curt Glaser's heirs made a claim for restitution against the Basel art museum for more than100 drawings and prints, including works by Henri Matisse, Max Beckmann, Auguste Rodin, Marc Chagall, Oskar Kokoschka, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel. Among the most valuable pieces are two Munch lithographs, “Self Portrait” and “Madonna.” The Kustmuseum refused for more than a decade. However, after the Swiss news media unearthed documents that contradicted the museum's version of events, the museum reversed its position in 2020, agreeing to pay a settlement to Glaser's heir.[13][14][15][16]
The German Lost Art Foundation lists 1806 objects that belonged to Glaser and his wife in its database.[17]
Hans Holbein d.Ä. (= Kunstgeschichtliche Monographien11). Hiersemann, Leipzig o. J.
Die Kunst Ostasiens. Der Umkreis ihres Denkens und Gestaltens. Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1913
Zwei Jahrhunderte deutscher Malerei. Von den Anfängen der deutschen Tafelmalerei im ausgehenden 14. Jahrhundert bis zu ihrer Blüte im beginnenden 16. Jahrhundert. Bruckmann, München 1916
Edvard Munch. Cassirer, Berlin 1917
Der Holzschnitt. Von seinen Anfängen im 15. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Cassirer, Berlin 1920
Vincent van Gogh (= Bibliothek der Kunstgeschichte9). E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1921
Deutsche Ostasienwissenschaften und Exil (1933–1945). Curt Glaser * 29. Mai 1879 in Leipzig, † 23. November 1943 New York. Ein vorläufiges Schriftenverzeichnis. pp. 231–266.
Glaser, Curt, in: Ulrike Wendland: Biographisches Handbuch deutschsprachiger Kunsthistoriker im Exil. Leben und Werk der unter dem Nationalsozialismus verfolgten und vertriebenen Wissenschaftler. München : Saur, 1999, ISBN3-598-11339-0, S. 197–200
Glaser, Curt. In: Lexikon deutsch-jüdischer Autoren. Band 9: Glas–Grün. Hrsg. vom Archiv Bibliographia Judaica. Saur, München 2001, ISBN3-598-22689-6, S. 3–6.
Curt Glaser. Kunsthistoriker, Kunstkritiker, Sammler. Eine deutsch-jüdische Biographie. Böhlau. 2006. ISBN3-412-26305-2.
Andreas Strobl: "Man bleibt mit Worten immer draußen". Curt Glaser – zwischen Kunstkritik und Sammellust. In: Aufbruch in die Moderne. Sammler, Mäzene und Kunsthändler in Berlin 1880–1933. Hrsg. von Anna-Dorothea Ludwig, Julius H. Schoeps, Ines Sonder, Mitarbeit Anna-Carolin Augustin. DuMont, Köln 201,2 ISBN978-3-8321-9428-4.
Curt Glaser. Historiker der ostasiatischen Kunst. Mit seinem nachgelassenen Werk "Materialien zu einer Kunstgeschichte des Quattrocento in Italien". Mit Einleitung, Schriftenverzeichnis und Register bearb. und hg. von Hartmut Walravens. Beiträge von Setsuko Kuwabara (= Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Neuerwerbungen der Ostasienabteilung, Sonderheft 31). Berlin 2012, ISBN978-3-88053-183-3.
Glaser, Curt, in: Joseph Walk (Hrsg.): Kurzbiographien zur Geschichte der Juden 1918–1945. München : Saur, 1988, ISBN3-598-10477-4, S. 114
Glaser, Curt, in: Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (Hrsg.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945. Band 2,1. München : Saur, 1983 ISBN3-598-10089-2, S. 379
^"Dictionary of Art Historians Glaser, Curt". Art Historians Info. 2018-02-21. Archived from the original on 2019-07-26. Retrieved 2021-04-21. Art museum and library director; Germanist art historian specializing in northern renaissance; patron of Expressionist artist and Asian art authority. Glaser was born of cultured Jewish parentage, S. Glaser and Emma Hase (Glaser). He attended the Wilhelms gymnasium in Berlin, graduating in 1897. Glaser studied medicine at the University of Freiburg and Munich, receiving his M.D. in 1902. However, art had always interested him and he immediately began a second degree in art history during the years Heinrich Wölfflin was in Berlin. He was granted a Ph.D. in art history under Wölfflin in 1907 writing his dissertation on Hans Holbein.
^"The drawing 'East Choir of the Bamberg Cathedral' from the former collection of Prof. Curt Glaser is to be restituted". www.lootedart.com. City of Bamberg. Archived from the original on 2018-05-01. Retrieved 2021-04-29. Professor Curt Glaser, physician, prominent art historian, art critic, author of important works on art history and well-known art collector, had been engaged at Berlin's museums since 1909. During his employment in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett [Museum of Prints and Drawings] he attained great achievements. In 1924 he took over the post of Director of the Berlin Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek [State Art Library]. When the National Socialists took power, he was persecuted because of his Jewish descent. Before he was forced to retire in September 1933, he had been put on leave of absence from the position of Director of the Kunstbibliothek, as a Jewish Museum Director undesired and persecuted by the Nazis even before the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service was enacted. With the loss of his position and persecution by the National Socialists, Prof. Curt Glaser had neither a professional nor a personal future in Nazi Germany. In June 1933, he emigrated with his second wife, also a Jew, via stopovers in France, Switzerland, Italy and Cuba, finally to the United States, where he died in 1943 in Lake Placid, New York.
^"In a Dramatic About-Face, the Kunstmuseum Basel Will Compensate the Heirs of a Jewish Collector for Works in Its Collection". Artnet News. 2020-03-27. Archived from the original on 2020-04-02. Retrieved 2021-04-21. The Swiss museum had long defended its decision to purchase some 200 works on paper owned by Jewish collector Curt Glaser at a Berlin auction in 1933. Now, 12 years after rejecting a restitution claim from Glaser's heirs, the museum has agreed to a settlement totaling an undisclosed sum. The collection is estimated to be worth more than $2 million and features works by Henri Matisse, Max Beckmann, Auguste Rodin, Marc Chagall, Oskar Kokoschka, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Erich Heckel, according to the New York Times. Highlights include a pair of lithographs by Edvard Munch, Glaser's close friend, titled Self Portrait and Madonna.
^Hickley, Catherine (2020-03-27). "Swiss Museum Settles Claim Over Art Trove Acquired in Nazi Era". The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-29. In 2008, the museum argued that the original owner, Curt Glaser, a leading figure in the Berlin art world and close friend of Edvard Munch, sold the art at market prices. The museum's purchase of the works at a 1933 auction in Berlin was made in good faith, it said, so there was no basis for restitution. But after the Swiss news media unearthed documents that shed doubt on that version of events, the museum reviewed its earlier decision and today announced it would pay an undisclosed sum to Glaser's heirs. In return, it will keep works on paper estimated to be worth more than $2 million by artists including Henri Matisse, Max Beckmann, Auguste Rodin, Marc Chagall, Oskar Kokoschka, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel. Among the most valuable pieces are two Munch lithographs, "Self Portrait" and "Madonna."
