Palais Albert Rothschild

The Palais ( Albert) Rothschild was a 1879-1884 built in 1954 and demolished building in Vienna. It was in the Prinz- Eugen- Straße 20-22 in the 4th district of Vienna Wieden. It is not to be confused with today existing smaller Palais Rothschild on No. 26 of the same street.

History

The palace was built in 1879-1884 according to the plans of the French architect Gabriel -Hippolyte Destailleur and served Albert Salomon Anselm Freiherr von Rothschild ( 1844-1911 ), the leading representative of the Viennese branch of the famous Jewish Rothschild banking family, as a city palace. The value held in the style of French Renaissance Revival building was distinguished by a particularly impressive staircase off, on the walls there were valuable tapestries, in the ballroom and the salons there were ceiling painting by Jean de Witt and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, the decor was in the Louis XVI style held.

The palace was confiscated after the "Anschluss " of Austria to the German Reich in March 1938 by the Nazi regime and housed temporarily the "Central Office for Jewish Emigration " under Adolf Eichmann and later other Nazi agencies. The palace survived the Second World War without significant bomb damage. 1947, decided his former owner Louis de Rothschild, the to give him restituted buildings with the condition of a pension fund for its former employees of the Republic of Austria. However, the federal government had no use for the precious object of the Ringstrasse era began in 1954 with the Demolierungsarbeiten. Today, at this point there is a 1957-1960 built to designs by the architect Franz Mörth office building of the Vienna Chamber of Labour.

The rich collection was restituted in 1999 to the family and heirs. Rothschild family and especially the heiress Bettina Looram -Rothschild as niece of Baron Louis de Rothschild and daughter of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild and Baroness Clarice was returned 250 objects of art or 239 catalog numbers. On 8 July 1999, they were auctioned at Christie's, a total of 224 objects for a record amount of 57.7 million pounds.