Facts & Files is commissioned by the family of Herbert M. Gutmann to conduct research on the provenance and whereabouts of works of art from the collection of Herbert M. Gutmann.

His mansion in Potsdam, Herbertshof, was designed to exhibit his collection. Several photographs taken at Herbertshof around 1930 and the catalogue of the auction at Paul Graupe give us an idea of his art holdings in 1934. The collection reflected his varied business and cultural interests. It was a very personal collection showing the strong relation of the family to the city of Dresden and the kingdom of Saxony. For instance, Pietro Rotari’s famous varie teste were attractions at the Russian and Saxon courts. Purchased from the Saxon Royal collection, Gutmann’s Rotari portraits were painted for the decoration of Schloss Pillnitz.

Herbert M. Gutmann was fascinated by Oriental culture, by Persian, Arab, and Ottoman ceramics, as well as Chinese porcelain. He was adviser for the Department of Islamic Arts at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Museum in Berlin and had donated some pieces to that museum. Friedrich Sarre was an advisor to Herbert M. Gutmann for the collection of objects designated as Islamic.

The “International Exhibition of Persian Art” in London was initiated and organized by Arthur U. Pope. The American art historian was very well connected in Europe and provided private collectors with oriental carpets and Islamic objects. As an advisor to the Persian government for the establishment of a national museum, he succeeded in placing the exhibition under the patronage of the English king and the Persian shah. The exhibition was opened in 1931, and was considered a great success. Herbert M. Gutmann – also in his function as President of the Persian-German Society – chaired the German preparatory committee for the exhibition and also lent seven objects.

A special gallery was added to his mansion to exhibit the “Arabicum,” a Syrian Boiserie dating back to the eighteenth century. In addition, Herbert M. Gutmann collected Scottish and English portraits.

After the National Socialists assumed power in Germany in 1933, Gutmann was persecuted due to his Jewish decent and his political position in the Weimar Era. Herbert M. Gutmann lost memberships of advisory boards and also income, was forced to sell shares of companies and was limited to work in Germany.

For this reasons, he was forced to auction his art collection at the auction house Paul Graupe in Berlin. In February 1934, Gutmann commissioned the Berlin auctioneer Paul Graupe to auction off his collection, which took place from April 12 to 14, 1934. The auction of the art collection in 1934 can be characterized as persecution-related under the circumstances mentioned above.

147 objects of Islamic art offered at the auction were described for the catalog by the curator Kurt Erdmann.

21 objects were purchased by the Danish lawyer Christian Ludvig Julian David from Gutmann’s collection at this auction and thus laid the foundation for the establishment of his collection of Islamic ceramics. The pieces purchased at the 1934 auction are still in the C.L. David Collection Museum in Copenhagen today.

Three objects (a lamp, two faience shards, and probably one shield) were purchased by Kurt Erdmann at an auction of the Internationales Kunst- und Auktionshaus in Berlin in October 1934, and are still with the collection of the Berlin Museum of Islamic Art.

Several objects from Gutmann’s collection appeared in Stuttgart, when they were auctioned as “from a Silesian collection” by the auction house Dr. Fritz Nagel on October 12, 1962.