-Caveat Lector-
Rothschild Art Collection Sold
By SUE LEEMAN
.c The Associated Press
LONDON (AP) -- In the sumptuous surroundings of auctioneers Christie's, the
portraits by Dutch master Frans Hals, the richly illustrated 16th-century
religious manuscripts and lavish furniture built for King Louis XVI look
quite at home.
But behind them lies the tale of a famous family brought low by Nazi
persecution.
Christie's is selling 250 artworks from the collection put together last
century by Barons Albert and Nathaniel von Rothschild, scions of the Austrian
arm of the 250-year-old banking dynasty and both avid collectors.
Within hours of annexing Austria in March 1938, the Nazis seized the
Rothschilds' beloved artworks and it was only in February that the Austrian
government agreed to return them. But the Rothschilds can no longer afford
such luxuries.
``In the war, the palace in which this collection was exhibited was reduced
to rubble, and so were their investments, factories and their
wealth-producing powers,'' Christie's chairman Lord Hindlip said at a news
conference Monday.
``The Rothschilds ... really have no alternative but to sell,'' he said.
The sale on July 8 is expected to realize more than $40 million.
At the end of the war, American soldiers discovered the Rothschild collection
hidden in a ski resort in the Austrian Tyrol. From 1947, it went on display
in leading museums, including Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum and the
Austrian Gallery.
But last year, Culture Minister Elisabeth Gehrer granted permission for the
works to be exported, saying she wanted to overturn the ``immoral decisions''
taken at war's end.
``It breaks my heart to see these things being sold: they are the last of my
childhood,'' Albert's granddaughter, Baroness Bettina der Rothschild, said in
a recent interview with The New York Times.
Hindlip called the collection ``the most exciting I have seen in my 36-odd
years at Christie's.''
Among the highlights of the 31 paintings to be sold are three Hals portraits,
including one of the Amsterdam merchant Tieleman Roosterman, splendid in
black suit with white ruff and cuffs. It alone is expected to fetch up to
$5.6 million.
The furniture collection includes a lavishly worked wooden commode built by
cabinetmaker Jean-Henri Riesener for Louis XVI's Fontainebleau palace in 1778
but later moved to Versailles. It carries an estimate of $2.4 million to $4
million.
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