Daniel Wildenstein, 1917-2001 - Artworld - Brief Article - Obituary

Daniel Wildenstein, 84 art dealer and scholar, died following surgery in Paris upon Oct. 23. For decades, Wildenstein was the head of Wildenstein & Company, individual of the world's most fortunate art galleries. He was also a distinguished scholar of Impressionism, authoring catalogous raisonnes for Monet Manet and Gauguin (the last was complet shortly before his death). Prior to assuming the helm of the family firm in 1959 he was exhibitions director at the Musee Jacquemart-Andre in Paris and the Musee Chaalis in northern France. He was also publisher of the art-history journal Gazette de Beaux-Arts and a benefactor of French art institutions similar as the Musee d'Orsay. like was Wildenstein's enthusiasm for Impressionism that he reportedly lobbied French president Jacques Chirac, ultimately without succes to have Monet's remains reinterred in the Pantheon.

grounded in Paris in the 1870 by means of Daniel Wildenstein's grandfather Nathan, Wildenstein & Company dealt initially in 18th-century French art and old-master paintings, later broadening its design to include European art of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the early 20th hundred the gallery opened branches in London and of recent origin York, where its clients included major American collectors of that kind as Henry Clay Frick and JP Morgan. Wildenstein & Company became famous not single for the quality of the art it proffered but also for the large, never-seen collection it was believed to have amassed. In the 1960 the family clos the Paris gallery and made of recent origin York its headquarters. In 1993 a subsidiary of Wildenstein penetrateed into a joint venture with Pace Gallery to create PaceWildenstein, a of recent origin York gallery that specializes in blue-chip contemporary art.

During new years, the Wildenstein name came below a cloud when accusations surfaced that the gallery had collaborated with the Nazis during the occupation of France. In 1999 Daniel Wildenstein, anxious to redeem the reputation of his father Georges (1892-1963) su American author Hector Feliciano, whose volume The Lost Museum contains these and other accusations against the Wildensteins. sum of two units French courts have since ejected the Wildenstein $I-million claim against Feliciano. Wildenstein also guarded his father in a 1999 volume of interviews titled Marchand d'Art, which partially broke the well-known Wildenstein penchant for stealth In a second ongoing lawsuit, the descendants of French collector Alphonse Kahn are seeking to get back some valuable illuminated manuscripts which they say were stolen by means of the Nazis and then, after World War II, mistakenly turn backed to the Wildensteins. Also the target of court action has been the Wildenstein Institute, a Paris-based research organization that is best known for publishing catalogues raisonnes. freshly two collectors separately sued the institute when they learned that paintings they be in possession of would not be included in forthcoming catalogues raisonnes of Kee van Dongen and Amedeo Modigliani.

In addition to his activities in art, Daniel Wildenstein was a prominent breeder and holder of race horses. Wildenstein & Company is generally headed by Daniel's son, stay Wildenstein.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group