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Grisebach

Highways and Byways

A question of trust: It took ten years, but Max Oppenheimer's painting Weintraubs Syncopators has found a new home. That all involved were left satisfied in the end is also due to Grisebach’s role in this artworld thriller.

The activities of an auction house like Grisebach are not just limited to dealing in art. In fact, much of what we do is a science all its own, and this quite literally: When the art historians employed by Grisebach work to clear up attributions and research provenances, for example. Or when they complete catalogues raisonné, sometimes keeping alive the memory of artists who might otherwise be forgotten. Or when our Grisebach staffers are called upon to work and apply their expertise above and beyond the call of duty, as in the case of Weintraubs Syncopators by Max Oppenheimer. 

The painting ‘Weintraubs Syncopators’ was first offered to us about ten years ago,” says Micaela Kapitzky, a member of the Grisebach management team who heads the Modern Art division together with Markus Krause. “During the research we invariably perform on such occasions, it soon became clear that there were a number of questions surrounding the painting’s provenance, particularly regarding its original owner.” The painting now known as Weintraubs Syncopators originally was given the title Jazzband by Max Oppenheimer, who painted it in in Berlin in 1927. Today, it is regarded as one of the major works by the artist, a native of Vienna born in 1885.

The dynamism with which Oppenheimer imbues the four musicians is breathtaking. Stare at the painting long enough and you practically begin to hear the sounds of the banjo and drumkit, of the trumpet and saxophone. Everything in this image is about rhythm and movement, about surrendering to the moment in total concentration. The colors, shapes, faces, bodies, and instruments – all of them are swaying and dancing, infecting us with their joy. Music as rapture – tellingly, all we see of the fifth band member at the piano are his hands flitting over the keyboard.

The special allure of this masterpiece was not lost on Oppenheimer's contemporaries. Shortly after it was completed, it was acquired by Dr. Hugo Staub, a prominent Berlin lawyer and psychoanalyst who was almost the same age as Oppenheimer. Staub was not able to enjoy the work for long, however, since his Jewish identity and membership in the League for Human Rights made him a target for the Nazis soon after the Reichstag elections of January 1933. Staub decided to leave for France that same year, eventually moving to the United States, where he died in 1942. 

We know that Staub, in fleeing the country, was forced to leave Oppenheimer’s Weintraubs Syncopators behind in his Berlin flat. But what became of the painting subsequently remains a mystery to this day. It did not resurface again until the early 1960s, when it was put up for sale by the Leo Spik auction house in Berlin. More than fifty years later, the descendants of the family that had acquired the work at that auction came to Grisebach, intending to consign it with us. “When the current owners found out from us that the painting’s backstory was unclear, we brainstormed together over how they should deal with the situation,” recalls Micaela Kapitzky. Since the owners, themselves Jewish, had personal ties to Ms. Kapitzky, they asked her to help them work out a fair solution to the problem. 

In a scenario like this one, absolute trust between the parties is indispensable. That was the least of the hurdles to be overcome, however, given the owners’ warm and long-standing rapport with Micaela Kapitzky.

In the meantime, Berlin’s Jewish Museum, too, had learned of the family’s interest in selling and had begun to research the history of the Jazzband painting. It turned out that a compensation payment had already been made to a relative of Hugo Staub in 1964, but this did not even come close to the prices that the works of Max Oppenheimer demonstrably command today. “The painting was at the very top of the Museum’s wish list,” Micaela Kapitzky remembers, “so we were approached and asked to act as mediator among the three parties. We communicated with the descendants of Hugo Staub and made the necessary trilateral arrangements, and achieved a fair and just conciliation of interests.” All of which was done pro bono: Grisebach did not earn a single cent from the transaction.                                                                                                   

In the end, all the pieces of the mosaic came together to form a perfect picture. The clincher was finding out that Deutsche Bank’s Cultural Foundation had recently received an inheritance from a benefactor with the proviso that the funds be used to “support a museum in Berlin.” This meant that everything fell into place in the most beautiful way possible. A price was negotiated and a percentage split between the owners and Hugo Staub's heirs agreed. Members of both families came from all over the world to attend the ceremonial handover to the Jewish Museum in Berlin – the city where the painting’s story had first begun. 

Since October of last year, Weintraubs Syncopators by Max Oppenheimer is now part of the Jewish Museum’s holdings and is exhibited there as part of the permanent collection. “An extraordinary acquisition,” is how Hetty Berg, the museum’s Director, describes it. “I am very pleased that this unique artwork has returned to Berlin.”  Among the attendees of the soiree celebrating the event were descendants of the original members of Weintraub’s Syncopators, who had emigrated to Australia in 1933. So it was only fitting that a jazz band was playing that evening. “Even the young musicians came from all sorts of backgrounds,” recalls Micaela Kapitzky. “It was a very special and joyous evening for all involved.”