61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

Another channel for the transfer of expropriated objets d’art to Switzerland was
when non-persecuted German art dealers acquired works at these auctions and sold
them further along, directly or indirectly, to Swiss art dealers. Overall, art
dealing remained the main route for the transfer of expropriated Jewish art
collections to Switzerland.
Unwelcome emigrant dealers – welcome market effects
One of the reasons why Switzerland increasingly emerged as an international
art-dealing centre was that many dealers who had emigrated from
Germany settled here. The employment bans imposed on Jewish art
collectors and art dealers forced them to sell off their collections in whole
or in part. However, restrictions were also introduced in Switzerland in
order to protect domestic dealers. In November 1935, speaking about a
current case, the Lucerne gallery owner Theodor Fischer generally objected
to the settlement of German emigrants in Switzerland, justifying his
opinion as follows:
«The issue of demand must be rejected absolutely, especially in the
present crisis. [...] This individual case would set a dangerous precedent
for future applications from German emigrants who are all in the same
situation as Nathan, who is currently approaching numerous families in
Switzerland.» 12
Before the war, around 85% out of 250 art historians emigrated abroad, but
only 17 of them – roughly 8% – went to Switzerland. Numerically, this
figure would appear to be negligible, but the newcomers had a disproportionately
significant impact. Around a dozen art dealers set up in business,
on a short- or long-term basis, in Switzerland (Flechtheim, Feilchenfeldt,
Rosenthal, Nathan, Kallir-Nierenstein, Blumka, Katz, etc.). The specialised
knowledge accrued in Switzerland is difficult to measure and quantify.
Among these emigrant art dealers, Fritz Nathan was probably the most
important supplier of art to the major private collections, such as those established
by Oskar Reinhart and Emil G. Bührle.
Looking back, Willi Raeber, the former President of the Swiss Art Dealers
Association, made the following comments about the impact of emigration
on art dealing:
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«We know and have witnessed the dynamic impact a number of newly
established art dealers had on Swiss art dealing and Swiss collecting over
the last thirty years. On the other hand, we also see – better than