Art collected by Jewish lawyer before WWII goes to auction
DALLAS • About 200 works of art from a Jewish lawyer’s collection that were spirited out of Nazi Germany to the U.S. are going up for auction.
The works collected by Ismar Littmann being offered Tuesday at Swann Auction Galleries In New York are mostly drawings, etchings and lithographs.
They were once part of a collection of about 6,000 pieces he amassed.
The works being auctioned are pieces brought out of Germany before World War II by Littmann’s son, who eventually settled in Texas.
Todd Weyman, auction house vice president, said the collection is notable for its singular focus on German works.
“His collecting was very optimistic for what was to happen,” Weyman said. “He was looking forward to putting together this great German collection.”
The civic-minded collector in Breslau, which after World War II became the Polish city of Wroclaw, co-founded the Breslau Jewish Museum in the city that had a thriving art scene.
Littmann was friends with many of the artists whose works he acquired, including Otto Mueller and Heinrich Tischler.
In this undated photo art is displayed that is going up for auction that were once part of a 6,000-piece collection amassed by a Jewish attorney in Germany.