Gallery van Diemen

Galerie van Diemen was a commercial art gallery founded in 1918 in Berlin, Germany. It played a significant role in the early twentieth-century art market, notably organizing the first major exhibition of Russian avant-garde art in Europe since 1917. The gallery expanded to include branches in The Hague, Amsterdam, and New York. Its history is marked by its early promotion of modern art and its tragic demise under the Nazi regime, which forcibly Aryanized the business, persecuted its Jewish owners, and liquidated its holdings through forced auctions.

The gallery was established in 1918 and initially specialized in Dutch painting. It was directed by Eduard Plietzsch from 1919 to 1935, and Kurt Benedict from 1923 to 1933. Until 1929, the gallery, along with the affiliated Dr. Benedict & Co., Altkunst Antiquitäten, and Dr. Otto Burchard & Co., belonged to Albert Loeske's Margraf group. Upon Loeske's death, the businesses were inherited by his employees, Jacob and Rosa Oppenheimer, with Jacob serving as manager. In 1922, the gallery shifted its focus to mount the first major European exhibition of Russian avant-garde art since the 1917 revolution. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Oppenheimers were banned from managing the Margraf group due to their Jewish heritage. The group was placed under the control of a Nazi administrator, Bolko von Richthofen. The Berlin galleries were subsequently liquidated by the National Socialists, and their artworks were sold off in seven forced auctions between 1935 and 1937 at the Paul Graupe auction house. Jacob and Rosa Oppenheimer fled to France in 1933 as refugees. Jacob died in Nice in 1941, and Rosa was interned at the Drancy concentration camp before being deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered on November 2, 1943. Meanwhile, the New York branch merged with the Lilienfeld Gallery, founded by German immigrant Karl Lilienfeld, operating as the van Diemen-Lilienfeld Gallery until the mid-1960s.

The gallery's holdings initially focused on Dutch painting, reflecting its foundational specialization. However, its scope expanded considerably to include modern and avant-garde movements, culminating in its landmark 1922 exhibition of Russian avant-garde art. As part of the Margraf group, the gallery's inventory also encompassed antiquities and broader fine art categories managed by its affiliated entities, Altkunst Antiquitäten and Dr. Otto Burchard & Co.

Specific works from the gallery's inventory have been the subject of restitution claims due to their forced dispersal during the Nazi era. In 2000, a French legal firm claimed the painting Bildnis der Marchesa Veronica Spinola Doria (1607-1608) by Peter Paul Rubens on behalf of the Oppenheimer heirs. In 2009, Hearst Castle in San Simeon restituted three artworks to the Oppenheimer heirs. Additional restitution claims connected to the gallery and the Margraf group include a 2017 claim involving three paintings at the National Gallery of Ireland, two from the Oppenheimer heirs and one from the heirs of Alfred Weinberger.

The original Berlin gallery was permanently closed following its forced liquidation and auction in 1935. The New York branch continued to operate under the name van Diemen-Lilienfeld Gallery until the mid-1960s. Today, the gallery's historical records are preserved by the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie in the Netherlands.