Person

Adolf Weinmüller

Alternative Names: Adolf Weinmueller
Life dates: 5 May 1886 - 25 March 1958
Active: Vienna
Munich
Occupation: German art dealer, Nazi party member

Adolf Weinmüller was a German art dealer and Nazi party member (1931) who specialised in auctions of Nazi looted art. In 1934, the anti-Jewish law on auctions (RGBl. I, 1934, pp. 974-976; 16 October 1934) was drafted with Weinmüller's assistance, helping to drive Jewish competitors out of the art business. In 1935, he became chairman of the "Association of German Art and Antique Dealers," which was under the control of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts.

In 1936, Weinmüller took over the auction house of the Jewish art dealer and auctioneer Hugo Helbing in Munich and operated under Münchener Kunstversteigerungshaus Adolf Weinmüller which in 1958 became Neumeister Münchener Kunstauktionshaus GmbH & Co. KG, Munich. In 1938, he took over the company of the Jewish art dealer Kende in Vienna and transformed it into Adolph Weinmüller & Co. Wiener Kunstversteigerungshaus (until 1944).

By June 1941, Weinmüller belonged to a commission that inspected cultural assets at the Gestapo headquarters in Prague; assets plundered from Jews as well as other "enemies of the state." A portion of these cultural objects were auctioned off at the Dorotheum auction house in Vienna and at Weinmüller in Munich.

Weinmüller's clientele included Martin Bormann as well Maria Almas-Dietrich.

After the war, the Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU) investigated Weinmüller and considered him to be a Red Flag Name for Nazi looting. However, despite sufficient evidence he escaped prosecution, and was classified only as a "follower" (Mitläufer) in the Munich denazification process in June 1948. The Austrian preliminary investigation against him was discontinued in 1955.

He is mentioned in the provenance of the painting Winter landscape with fire in a town to the left by Aert van der Neer. The picture was possibly sold at a sale in 1941 auctioned by Weinmüller. The painting was owned by Adolphe Schloss and sold before his death in 1910.

In 2014, the Annotated Auction Catalogues of Adolf Weinmüller (Munich/ Vienna) were published on Lostart.de. For more information, please see: https://www.lostart.de/Content/051_ProvenienzRaubkunst/_Zusatzinformationen/quelle_6162.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4. Accessed 31 May 2021.

Sources:

Hopp, Meike. Kunsthandel im Nationalsozialismus, Adolf Weinmüller in München und Wien. Wien: Böhlau 2012.

Proveana. Datenbank Provenienzforschung. "Münchner Kunstversteigerungshaus Adolf Weinmüller."

https://www.proveana.de/de/corporate-body/muenchner-kunstversteigerungshaus-adolf-weinmueller. Accessed 1 June 2021.

Bähr, Astrid. German Sales 1930 – 1945. Bibliographie der Auktionskataloge aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 2013. https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/artdok/2251/1/Baehr_German_Sales_1930_1945_2013.pdf. Accessed 1 June 2021.

More... Less