Hector Feliciano
Encyclopedia
Dr. Hector Feliciano, PhD. (born 1952) is a Puerto Rican
journalist
and author whose book The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art has shed light on an estimated 20,000 works of art plundered by the Nazis
; each one is owned by a museum or a collector somewhere.
, the capital city of Puerto Rico
where he received his primary and secondary education, graduating form Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola. During the early part of his youth he became interested in studying art and culture, however his family expected him to follow his father's footsteps and study medicine.
Feliciano moved to Waltham, Massachusetts
, and attended Brandeis University
, earning in 1974 his Bachelor's degree in History and Art History. Feliciano earned his Masters in the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
. He then went to Paris
and earned a doctorate in literature at the University of Paris
while working for the city of Paris cultural affairs bureau.
He began his career as a cultural writer for the Paris bureau of the Washington Post. In 1988, Feliciano was working on an article for the Paris bureau of the Los Angeles Times
about a stolen Murillo
painting that had been bought by the Louvre
, when someone mentioned that 20 percent of the looted art during World War II
is still missing. During the process of his reporting he realized that no one had ever asked the looted families about the situation.
organized the spoliation
of art of European countries. The Nazis confiscated artworks from prominent Jewish collectors and from dealers whose galleries were taken over. Ordinary people, too, lost their art treasures when they left them behind in their homes, as they fled or were sent to concentration camps. The plundering occurred from 1933 until the end of World War II
, although most of the plundered art was acquired during the war. Many of these items were recovered by the Allies
immediately following the war, however many more are still missing.
, the Rosenbergs, the Bernheim-Jeunes, the David-Weills
and the Schlosses trusted him with their records and their memories and other families welcomed him.
The French government ministries and museums refused to let Feliciano see their records and kept stalling until he was finally permitted to gain access through information requests lodged by the victims' families. Feliciano also had the help of someone from the Ministry of Culture who secretly provided him with documents sent from the Ministry of Culture to the Ministry of Justice which proved that the French museums mingled looted works with their collections. Feliciano had befriended a 92-year-old art dealer by the name of Alfred Daber who remembered all the wartime gossip in regard to the dealings that went on with the looted art. During his investigations Feliciano went to Washington, D.C.
to work in the United States National Archives and discovered that Daber himself had been dealing in looted art.
In 1997, Feliciano published his book: The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art. Feliciano tried to publish his book in the United States and was turned down by at least 30 publishers. He then went to a publishing house in France, where it was picked up almost immediately. In his book he traces the art works looted as they passed through the hands of top German officials, unscrupulous art dealers, and unwitting auction houses such as Christie's
and Sotheby's
. He also revealed that the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris was amongst the institutions in France and Switzerland
that held works that had been seized from Jewish victims during the war by the Germans (these works are now referred to as Musées Nationaux Récupération or MNRs).
Feliciano exposed the code utilized by the museum to keep track of the provenance of the works in the collection: "R" referred for "recuperation" and the number following it signified the order in which the work arrived at the museum. Feliciano charged the museum's curators with having "made no huge effort" to find the rightful owners for "thousands of unclaimed works".
The book, which was first published in French
, has since been translated into several other languages. After the book's succeesful European publication HarperCollins
, a U.S. publishing house that had inititally turned it down (amongst 30 others), bought the U.S. publication rights. The book points out also the role of Switzerland, whose legislation is very favourable to dishonest dealers and Russia, which categorically refuses to give back the stolen works of art found in Germany at the end of WW2 to their legitimate owners.
The French government had to increase efforts to find original owners (or their heirs) of the nearly 2,000 looted worksworks of arts stolen by nazi Germany. A Matisse painting titled "Oriental Woman Seated on Floor," was identified in the Seattle Art Museum
as a piece that belonged to the heirs of Paul Rosenberg by someone who read the book. The Rosenberg family then laid claim to the painting. The "Paysage" (pictured), a 1911 Cubist landscape
by Albert Gleizes
at the Pompidou Center was identified by Hector Feliciano as having been looted by the Nazis from the home of collector Alphonse Kann during World War II. It was returned to the heirs of Alphonse Kann.
Families whose art collections were plundered by the Nazis are reclaiming prized paintings that have been found hanging in museums around the world. Auction houses have also stopped sales of works because their postwar sellers may have been thieves.
Neither Switzerland or Russia did anything in favour of the legitimate owners or their heirs.
The family of the Parisian art dealer Paul Rosenberg recovered paintings by Matisse, Monet, Léger
and Bonnard
. In 2001, Feliciano sued the Rosenberg family alleging that Mrs. Rosenberg, the widow of Mr. Rosenberg's son, Alexandre had made an oral contract with him promising that she would compensate him for tracking down paintings that were returned to the family in recent years. Feliciano was asking a 17.5 percent of the estimated $39 million value of the paintings as a finders fee, however Mrs. Rosenberg denied she had an oral contract with Feliciano and said he had not been responsible for recovering the paintings. The case was dismissed by Justice Charles E. Ramos, a State Supreme Court justice in Manhattan
in February 2003.
, in which he specialized in arts and culture. He continued to live in Paris and was the editor in chief of World Media Network, a newspaper syndicate serving 23 European newspapers. Feliciano worked as the director of the Ministry of Culture and the "Club des Poetes" in Paris before moving to New York City
where he writes for El Pais and Clarin.
Feliciano is a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University
, and has served on the Panel of Experts of the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. He is the organizer of the First International Symposium on Cultural Property and Patrimony (Columbia University, 1999) and of a panel discussion entitled "The Art of the Enemy" (School of Visual Arts in New York City, 2002). Feliciano is currently teaching an honors seminar on religious art at New York University.
Puerto Ricans in the United States
Stateside Puerto Ricans are American citizens of Puerto Rican origin, including those who migrated from Puerto Rico to the United States and those who were born outside of Puerto Rico in the United States...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and author whose book The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art has shed light on an estimated 20,000 works of art plundered by the Nazis
Nazi plunder
Nazi plunder refers to art theft and other items stolen as a result of the organized looting of European countries during the time of the Third Reich by agents acting on behalf of the ruling Nazi Party of Germany. Plundering occurred from 1933 until the end of World War II, particularly by military...
; each one is owned by a museum or a collector somewhere.
Early years
Feliciano was born in San JuanSan Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
, the capital city of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
where he received his primary and secondary education, graduating form Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola. During the early part of his youth he became interested in studying art and culture, however his family expected him to follow his father's footsteps and study medicine.
Feliciano moved to Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...
, and attended Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
, earning in 1974 his Bachelor's degree in History and Art History. Feliciano earned his Masters in the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is one of Columbia's graduate and professional schools. It offers three degree programs: Master of Science in journalism , Master of Arts in journalism and a Ph.D. in communications...
. He then went to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and earned a doctorate in literature at the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
while working for the city of Paris cultural affairs bureau.
He began his career as a cultural writer for the Paris bureau of the Washington Post. In 1988, Feliciano was working on an article for the Paris bureau of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
about a stolen Murillo
Bartolomé Estéban Murillo
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children...
painting that had been bought by the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
, when someone mentioned that 20 percent of the looted art during World War II
Art theft and looting during World War II
Art theft and looting occurred on massive scale during World War II. It originated with the policies of the Axis countries, primarily Nazi Germany and Japan, which systematically looted occupied territories...
is still missing. During the process of his reporting he realized that no one had ever asked the looted families about the situation.
Nazi art looting
During the Third Reich, agents acting on behalf of the ruling Nazi Party of GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
organized the spoliation
Looting
Looting —also referred to as sacking, plundering, despoiling, despoliation, and pillaging—is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe, such as during war, natural disaster, or rioting...
of art of European countries. The Nazis confiscated artworks from prominent Jewish collectors and from dealers whose galleries were taken over. Ordinary people, too, lost their art treasures when they left them behind in their homes, as they fled or were sent to concentration camps. The plundering occurred from 1933 until the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, although most of the plundered art was acquired during the war. Many of these items were recovered by the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
immediately following the war, however many more are still missing.
The Lost Museum
Feliciano began the research for his book in 1989, using material from German looting inventories, documents that had been declassified and more than 200 interviews with art dealers, art historians and the surviving relatives of the families who were victimized. At first, Feliciano believed that the families involved would be hesitant to cooperate in his investigation, however the five families whose stories would be the core of the book, the RothschildsRothschild family
The Rothschild family , known as The House of Rothschild, or more simply as the Rothschilds, is a Jewish-German family that established European banking and finance houses starting in the late 18th century...
, the Rosenbergs, the Bernheim-Jeunes, the David-Weills
Pierre David-Weill
Pierre David-Weill was a French investment banker.Born Pierre Sylvain Désiré Gérard David-Weill in Paris, France, he was the son of Flora Raphael and David David-Weill , Chairman of Lazard Frères...
and the Schlosses trusted him with their records and their memories and other families welcomed him.
The French government ministries and museums refused to let Feliciano see their records and kept stalling until he was finally permitted to gain access through information requests lodged by the victims' families. Feliciano also had the help of someone from the Ministry of Culture who secretly provided him with documents sent from the Ministry of Culture to the Ministry of Justice which proved that the French museums mingled looted works with their collections. Feliciano had befriended a 92-year-old art dealer by the name of Alfred Daber who remembered all the wartime gossip in regard to the dealings that went on with the looted art. During his investigations Feliciano went to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
to work in the United States National Archives and discovered that Daber himself had been dealing in looted art.
In 1997, Feliciano published his book: The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art. Feliciano tried to publish his book in the United States and was turned down by at least 30 publishers. He then went to a publishing house in France, where it was picked up almost immediately. In his book he traces the art works looted as they passed through the hands of top German officials, unscrupulous art dealers, and unwitting auction houses such as Christie's
Christie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
and Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
. He also revealed that the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris was amongst the institutions in France and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
that held works that had been seized from Jewish victims during the war by the Germans (these works are now referred to as Musées Nationaux Récupération or MNRs).
Feliciano exposed the code utilized by the museum to keep track of the provenance of the works in the collection: "R" referred for "recuperation" and the number following it signified the order in which the work arrived at the museum. Feliciano charged the museum's curators with having "made no huge effort" to find the rightful owners for "thousands of unclaimed works".
The book, which was first published in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, has since been translated into several other languages. After the book's succeesful European publication HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
, a U.S. publishing house that had inititally turned it down (amongst 30 others), bought the U.S. publication rights. The book points out also the role of Switzerland, whose legislation is very favourable to dishonest dealers and Russia, which categorically refuses to give back the stolen works of art found in Germany at the end of WW2 to their legitimate owners.
Aftermath
Seattle Art Museum
The Seattle Art Museum is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, USA. It maintains three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill, and the Olympic Sculpture Park on the central Seattle waterfront, which opened on...
as a piece that belonged to the heirs of Paul Rosenberg by someone who read the book. The Rosenberg family then laid claim to the painting. The "Paysage" (pictured), a 1911 Cubist landscape
Cubism
Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...
by Albert Gleizes
Albert Gleizes
Albert Gleizes , was a French painter. Born Albert Léon Gleizes and raised in Paris, he was the son of a fabric designer who ran a large industrial design workshop...
at the Pompidou Center was identified by Hector Feliciano as having been looted by the Nazis from the home of collector Alphonse Kann during World War II. It was returned to the heirs of Alphonse Kann.
Families whose art collections were plundered by the Nazis are reclaiming prized paintings that have been found hanging in museums around the world. Auction houses have also stopped sales of works because their postwar sellers may have been thieves.
Neither Switzerland or Russia did anything in favour of the legitimate owners or their heirs.
Litigation
In 1999, a French court rejected a claim for $1 million in damages brought by the Wildenstein family against Feliciano, who suggested in his book that the French-Jewish family did business with Nazi officials during Germany's wartime occupation of France. In the book Feliciano claims that the powerful dealer and collector did business with Nazi art dealers before the war and for months after France's occupation by Germany in June 1940. He also said that after Wildenstein went into exile in New York in January 1941, he maintained contacts with a former employee, Roger Duquoy, who ran the Paris gallery until 1944. The three-judge lower court stated the following in reaching their decision:"The Lost Museum: the Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art, as well as new documents presented to the court, the judges said that Hector Feliciano had in his hands elements that permitted him to believe that Georges Wildenstein maintained direct and indirect relations with German authorities during the occupation."
The family of the Parisian art dealer Paul Rosenberg recovered paintings by Matisse, Monet, Léger
Léger
Léger is a surname, and may refer to:* Alexis Leger – French poet and diplomat* Fernand Léger – French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker* Jules Léger – Governor General of Canada * Louis Léger – French writer and pioneer in Slavic studies...
and Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker, as well as a founding member of Les Nabis.-Biography:...
. In 2001, Feliciano sued the Rosenberg family alleging that Mrs. Rosenberg, the widow of Mr. Rosenberg's son, Alexandre had made an oral contract with him promising that she would compensate him for tracking down paintings that were returned to the family in recent years. Feliciano was asking a 17.5 percent of the estimated $39 million value of the paintings as a finders fee, however Mrs. Rosenberg denied she had an oral contract with Feliciano and said he had not been responsible for recovering the paintings. The case was dismissed by Justice Charles E. Ramos, a State Supreme Court justice in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in February 2003.
Later years
During the 1998-99 academic year, as part of the National Arts Journalism Program, Feliciano was one of fourteen journalists selected for a Journalism Fellowship by Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, in which he specialized in arts and culture. He continued to live in Paris and was the editor in chief of World Media Network, a newspaper syndicate serving 23 European newspapers. Feliciano worked as the director of the Ministry of Culture and the "Club des Poetes" in Paris before moving to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where he writes for El Pais and Clarin.
Feliciano is a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, and has served on the Panel of Experts of the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. He is the organizer of the First International Symposium on Cultural Property and Patrimony (Columbia University, 1999) and of a panel discussion entitled "The Art of the Enemy" (School of Visual Arts in New York City, 2002). Feliciano is currently teaching an honors seminar on religious art at New York University.
See also
- List of Puerto Rican writers
- List of Famous Puerto Ricans
- Puerto Rican literature
- Nazi plunderNazi plunderNazi plunder refers to art theft and other items stolen as a result of the organized looting of European countries during the time of the Third Reich by agents acting on behalf of the ruling Nazi Party of Germany. Plundering occurred from 1933 until the end of World War II, particularly by military...
- Looted artLooted artLooted art has been a consequence of looting during war, natural disaster and riot for centuries. Looting of art, archaeology and other cultural property may be an opportunistic criminal act, or may be a more organized case of unlawful or unethical pillage by the victor of a conflict."Looted art"...
Further reading
- The Lost Museum by Hector Feliciano. Published by Basic Books (Harper Collins Publishers), 1997, ISBN 0-465-04194-9.