The Rothschild collection was sold
The auction house Christie's sold off the collection of the Rothschild barons in London with great success. The total result of the auction was $90 million, 23 world records were set in various classes - “for artist”, “for manuscripts”, etc. However, this brilliant action may close the restitution process in the world for a long time.

In the wake of repentance for the victims of the Holocaust, which has swept the whole world over the past year or two, Austria has adopted a new restitution law, according to which all (without exceptions or exceptions) valuables ever confiscated by the Nazis must be returned to their owners. The remains of the collection of barons Albert and Nathaniel Rothschild immediately fell within the scope of the law.
The Rothschilds formed the backbone of their collection in the 19th century, when their financial empire became so strong that the acquisition price could simply be ignored. For the family, which once started its business in a poor money changer's shop in the Jewish quarter, the meaning of the collection lay not so much in the quality of things, but in their origin. The chest of drawers is from King Louis XVI, the armor is from Emperor Maximilian II, the paintings are from the Austrian Archduke, the clock is from the French Duke. Along with these items, the Rothschilds appropriated the spirit, chic and lifestyle of the family aristocracy.
By the 1930s, the Austrian branch of the family owned a magnificent mansion in Vienna, filled with priceless works of art. But in the very first days of the Anschluss in Austria, the Nazis confiscated the entire collection (about 260 items), and the Gestapo headquarters was set up in the mansion. After the war, the collection discovered by the Americans in the Tyrolean salt mines was transferred to the Austrian authorities, who returned it to its owners. Almost completely - with the exception of ten paintings, which the Rothschilds "as a token of gratitude" left to the Vienna Museum. This was a kind of payment to the state for the opportunity to export other works from the country.
In April of this year, the heiress of collectors Bettina von Rothschild received the last ten paintings from the Vienna Museum of Art. The legendary collection has regained its original form. To soon fall apart again - forever.
250 lots, almost the entire collection of Austrian Rothschilds, went under the hammer in the main Christie's auction room on London's King Street. The price increase exceeded the most optimistic expectations. According to auction reports, most of the buyers in the room were Europeans (in recent years, the most expensive purchases have usually been made by Americans and Japanese). Undoubted artistic quality, combined with the desire to become the owner of an item “from the Rothschilds,” did its job: eight of the ten lots in the top ten auctions set some kind of record in their class - “for an artist,” “for carpets,” “for watches,” etc. . n. In total, 23 world records were set on sale.
The top lot of the auction, as expected, was the Rothschild family illuminated book of hours (Flanders, early 16th century), which was sold for $13.4 million. “Portrait of Thielemann Roostermann” by Frans Hals went not much cheaper - for $12.9 million (Both lot is three and a half times more expensive than the preliminary estimate.) The chest of drawers of Louis XVI, which moved with the king from Fontainebleau to Versailles and back and ended its nomadic life only after the execution of its owner, was bought by the Versailles Museum for $10.9 million and thus designated for standing eternally in a niche of the Palace of Versailles.
The success of the auction is obvious. However, this event could be a dark day for the restitution process, which has recently gained momentum. The decision of the Austrian authorities to return paintings of the highest museum level to their owners was not caused by sympathy for the plight of the family (although it was the financial difficulties of the Rothschilds that became the official reason for the sale of the collection), but by the desire to preserve the historical collection intact. As a result, the Austrian Rothschild collection no longer exists. Museums and galleries that still preserve valuables stolen by the Nazis will readily refer to this sad precedent. In a conversation with a Kommersant correspondent, the director of the Hermitage, Mikhail Piotrovsky, who has a strong reputation as a democrat on issues of restitution, noted that he considers this whole story immoral.

YULIA Kommersant-Romanovskaya, Tatyana Kommersant-Markina

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 122 dated July 14, 1999, p. 10