Rudolf Leopold

Rudolf Leopold (* March 1, 1925 in Vienna, † June 29, 2010 ) was an Austrian ophthalmologist and an art collector and the museological director of the eponymous Leopold Museum in the Museumsquartier in Vienna.

Life and work

Rudolf Leopold at the University of Vienna studied ophthalmology after high school in 1943 and in 1953 received his doctorate for Dr. med; after that he worked as an ophthalmologist. However, his interest was already at that time the art; he heard during his studies and lectures on art history and collected paintings and objects of art, primarily of the then already forgotten Expressionist painter Egon Schiele.

In 1955, he turned in Amsterdam before a highly acclaimed exhibition contemporary Austrian art, was only known to a wider audience through the Schiele. After this success, more organized Leopold Schiele exhibitions in Innsbruck, London (1963 ), Vienna ( 1968) and New York.

1972 Rudolf Leopold published his great Schiele monograph as a critical business directory with accurate design verification. From 1989 to 1991, the exhibition " Egon Schiele and his time" with great success in Zurich, Vienna, Munich, Wuppertal and London was shown. Numerous exhibitions in Tubingen, Dusseldorf and Hamburg, Graz, New York and Barcelona followed. Also at the Expo 2000 in Hanover images Schiele were seen.

In 1994, Rudolf Leopold with the help of the Republic of Austria and the Austrian National Bank 's collection in the Leopold Museum Private Foundation one in which there are now 5289 pieces of art. Leopold was awarded about a third of the appraised value, but was it used for museological director for life. In 2001, the Leopold Museum was opened in Vienna's Museumsquartier, since this important collection of Austrian classical modernism can be seen in a permanent exhibition.

For his commitment was Rudolf Leopold in 1997, the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art awarded First Class.

Leopold died on 29 June 2010 and was on 6 July 2010 on the Grinzinger cemetery in the 19th district of Vienna Dobling, dedicated in honor of Half grave of Vienna (group 4, number 43) was buried.

Restitution discussion

With the museum's opening, discussions began to " Aryanised " works of art in the collection. 1998 were seized ( from the former property of Lea Bondi Jaray - ) and Dead City III (from the Property of Fritz Grünbaum ) in New York, the two Egon Schiele paintings Portrait of Wally. Dead City III in 1999 again returned to the museum, because the plaintiffs were not the rightful heirs of Fritz Grunbaum.

When legal dispute Portrait of Wally, it was a matter that Rudolf Leopold, the painting with the Austrian Gallery Belvedere against the image Rainerbub ( Egon Schiele ) had exchanged, even though he should have known that the painting of art dealer Lea Bondi belonged (which it myself at the beginning 1950s to help in the recovery of the painting, which was " arisiert " in 1938 by Friedrich Welz, bat). The dispute ended in July 2010 with a comparison: the civil confiscation action was dismissed, the image remains for a payment of 19 million U.S. dollars ( mere 15 million euros ) to the estate of Lea Bondi Jaray owned by the Leopold Museum Private Foundation. In addition to clear up a common formulated accompanying future museum visitors about the eventful history of the image and its previous owners.

In 2000, a Canadian citizen complained to restitution of the painting The Dengler by Albin Egger- Lienz. That action was dismissed in all instances, 2003, by the Supreme Court in Vienna.

Finally, there is a ( partially open ) demand of the heirs of Jenny Steiner on return of Egon Schiele painting " Houses by the sea ". With the granddaughter of Jenny Steiner, Leopold Museum Private Foundation on 11 May 2011 entered into a settlement ].

Although the Leopold Museum has made ​​available as Austria's only museum its provenance database on the Internet, but mentions only partially the dubious provenance. However, there are many serious works of art in the collection of the former property of persecuted by the Nazi regime people: Oskar Reichel, Fritz Grünbaum, Heinrich Rieger, Charles Mayländer, Jenny Steiner and others. As a private foundation, the Leopold Museum also not covered by the Austrian restitution law (Federal Law Gazette 181/1998 ). However, the case was " Wally ", confiscated in 1998 from the Leopold Collection in New York, one of the triggers of a restitution debate and also this Act. The Restitution Act authorizes the competent Minister to restitute art objects of the federal museums.

In 2008 there was a scandal over the Albin Egger- Lienz exhibition at the Leopold Museum, since 14 of the pictures ( 12 of which loans of various Austrian museums) was suspected that they had been raped in the Nazi era. The Leopold Museum Private Foundation has now approved the proposal of Ministry of Education, use two independent researchers from the Museum Provenance at Leopold Museum, which are paid by the Republic of Austria. On 21 December 2009, these researchers have presented 11 reports to 17 works of art. By December 2011, published on the website of the Leopold Museum Private Foundation 45 dossier. ]

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