Erich Šlomović

Erich Šlomović
Born1915
Đakovo, Austro-Hungarian Empire, (now Croatia)
Died1942 (aged 27)
Around Ćuprija, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Serbia)
Cause of deathMurdered in Holocaust
NationalityYugoslav
OccupationArt collector
EmployerAmbroise Vollard
Parent(s)Bernard and Roza Šlomović
RelativesEgon Šlomović
(brother)

Erich Šlomović (Serbian: Erih Šlomović, also known as Erich Chlomovitch) (1915–1942) was a Yugoslav art collector.[1][2] He was an assistant and protégé of Ambroise Vollard.[3]

Early life

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Šlomović was born in Đakovo (Austro-Hungarian Empire) in 1915 to a Jewish family of Bernard and Roza Šlomović. He had a brother, Egon.[4][5][6]

Career

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In the 1930s, Šlomović moved to Paris, where he was befriended by legendary art collector Ambroise Vollard. Through Vollard, Šlomović met the greatest artists of the age, including Picasso, Matisse, Cocteau, Rouault among others, and was able to amass an impressive personal collection of some 600 works. Vollard died in a car accident in July 1939. Shortly after that, with France on the brink of Nazi invasion, Šlomović decided to return to Yugoslavia, where the war had not yet spread. He left about 200 artworks in a vault in the Société Générale in Paris, and the rest he had shipped via diplomatic pouch to Belgrade. These were exhibited at a highly acclaimed exhibition in Zagreb in 1940.[5][7]

World War II

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During World War II, with the Independent State of Croatia establishment in 1941, Šlomović and his family moved to the village of Bačina in Serbia in an attempt to save themselves.[5] While in Bačina, Šlomović hid the paintings he brought with him in a double wall.[5] Slomovic was killed by Nazis at the age of 27.[8]

Bernard, Erich and Egon were taken to detention camp in Ćuprija and were all killed. Erich's mother Roza and a female distant in-law Mara, born a Serbian Orthodox and converted to Judaism when she married Roza Šlomović's nephew Fridrih Hercler, were not touched and neither was his collection. Roza died in a train accident, together with Mara's children, while transporting the collection to Belgrade which had been liberated by the Red Army and the Josip Broz's partisan units. The accident happened on 31st Dec 1944 in Velika Plana, Serbia. Mara survived the Holocaust hidden by the local population.[5] (7) Mara then went on to remarry with a person who had also lost his wife and children during WWII and became the mother of David Albahari and his sister.[9][10]

Legacy

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After his death, the collection ended up in the National Museum of Serbia.[11] In 1989 Veljko Bulajić directed Donator, a movie dedicated to Šlomović's tragic life while in 2004 Momo Kapor wrote a book about his life. The paintings in the Société Generale bank were discovered in 1979 when the bank was allowed to open the vault to recover unpaid storage fees. There is a legal dispute over the ownership of those paintings.[5]

Restitution claims and court decisions

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Vollard's and Slomovic's heirs had competing claims on several artworks. An agreement was reached, paving the way for a sale at Sothebys.[12][13][14][15] Many uncertainties and competing versions of the history remain.[16][11]

References

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  1. ^ Defined as such in a Dutch source in English: http://www.garyschwartzarthistorian.nl/schwartzlist/?id=66
  2. ^ In French rendered as "juif yougoslave": http://www.artcult.fr/_Judaica/Fiche/Art-0-1249411.htm
  3. ^ "Kontroverzna diplomatska pošiljka s ciljem - Beograd" (in Croatian). Deutsche Welle. 2010-06-30.
  4. ^ D’Arcy, David. "The Mysterious Mr. Slomovic". artnet. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
  5. ^ a b c d e f (in Croatian) Ha-Kol (Glasilo Židovske zajednice u Hrvatskoj); Vesna Domany Hardy; O zbirci Ericha Šlomovića; stranica 43, 44, 45, 46; broj 103, siječanj / veljača 2008.
  6. ^ "Slike koje je 1939. Hrvat spasio od Hitlera idu na najveću aukciju godine" (in Croatian). Jutarnji list. 2010-04-25.
  7. ^ "Collection Erich Chlomovitch" Musee National de Belgrade, published by Muzejsko - galerijski centar, Zagreb, Croatia, 1989
  8. ^ "Les trésors de la collection Vollard sortis du coffre". Le Figaro (in French). 2010-04-25. Retrieved 2024-11-15.
  9. ^ "Misteriozni gospodin Šlomović, 2. Deo / Od Bačine do danas". YouTube. 8 March 2017.
  10. ^ "Tragedija na šinama".
  11. ^ a b Brown, Mark (2010-04-22). "Sotheby's to auction 140 lost treasures of 20th-century art". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-11-15.
  12. ^ Article, Taylor Dafoe ShareShare This (2023-02-17). "The Musée d'Orsay Has Been Ordered to Restitute Paintings by Cézanne, Renoir, and Gauguin That Were Stolen During World War II". Artnet News. Retrieved 2024-11-15. In May 2022, a judge ruled that the four artworks by Cézanne, Gauguin, and Renoir were the property of Vollard when he died and therefore should belong to his heirs. The ruling was then upheld in a French High Court last November.
  13. ^ "Polémiques autour de la collection Slomovic". Le Quotidien de l'Art (in French). 2015-04-13. Retrieved 2024-11-15.
  14. ^ "French heirs sue Serbia over seized paintings". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. 2012-05-31. Retrieved 2024-11-15. Sotheby's vend à Londres et à Paris cent quarante œuvres et documents provenant de la célèbre collection Vollard, arrivés sur le marché après de longues négociations.
  15. ^ "Trésors de guerre - Chez Sotheby's (Londres et Paris), les 22 et 29 juin". Challenges (in French). 2010-06-16. Retrieved 2024-11-15.
  16. ^ "French heirs sue Serbia over seized paintings". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. 2012-05-31. Retrieved 2024-11-15.

Further reading

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  • Zbirka Erich Šlomović iz Narodnog muzeja u Beogradu: Muzejsko galerijski centar, Muzejski prostor, Zagreb, 7.12.1989 - 3.1.1990
  • Momo Kapor: Dosije Šlomović, Knjiga-Komerc Belgrade, 2004. ISBN 8677120068
  • erich-slomovic.com
  • Victor Perry "Stolen Art", publisher Gefen, Jerusalem, 2000
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