Footnotes

This gold handbag and purse was a gift from Doctor Leon Lilienfeld (1869-1938) to his future wife Antonie Schulz (1876-1972), in the New Year of 1912. The inscriptions are from Leon to Antonie Schulz, who later became Antonie (Schulz) Lilienfeld.

Leon Lilienfeld was born Joseph Leib Leon Lilienfeld to a Jewish family in Podhajce, near L'vov in South Eastern Poland (now the Ukraine), in 1869. Dr Lilienfeld was trained as a physician, but went on to become an eminent scientist and inventor. In his scientific career he produced new derivatives of cellulose and became world-renowned for his inventions, obtaining patents both in Austria and the United States. Leon's wife Antonie Schulz was born in Czechoslovakia in 1876, into a Christian household. As such, Dr Lilienfeld was baptised on April 27th 1914 at the age of 45 and shortly after the couple married, choosing to reside in an affluent area of Vienna.

With his wealth, Dr Lilienfeld built a significant collection of Dutch and Flemish old master paintings. The Austrian art historian Gustav Glück published a catalogue of the Lilienfeld pictures in 1917, the 'Portrait of a Man' by Frans Hals serving as the frontispiece to the publication and securing its place as the highlight of the collection. The Lilienfeld's paintings were so well known that they were widely considered a contribution to the cultural holdings of Austria. As early as 1933, the couple apparently planned to relocate to France, as the German art periodical Pantheon reported:

An important private collection, which includes a number of most excellent works by the Dutch Masters, such as the 'Portrait of a Man' by Frans Hals ... will be lost to Vienna's art collections in the near future, when the owner, Dr Leon Lilienfeld, moves to Paris.

For what reason they planned to relocate to Paris at this time is not known, but they did not leave Austria until shortly after the Anschluss, on March 24, 1938, fleeing to Milan. The couple provided several reasons for their departure, but the most likely explanation was that, because he would be considered Jewish under the Nazi race laws, he did not wish to stay within the borders of what had become part of the Third Reich. Thus the Lilienfeld's had to leave their home and their belongings, including the art collection, in Austria. Tragically Dr Lilienfeld died of pneumonia in Milan on June 6, 1938, leaving his widow as his sole heir. Between leaving Vienna and her husband's demise, the Nazi Decree Regarding the Declaration of Jewish Assets went into effect on April 26, 1938. This law required any Jewish resident of the Reich possessing at least RM 5000 in property to submit an itemised asset registration with the Vermögensverkehrstelle (VVSt), or Property Registration Office within the Ministry of Economics.

By 1941 Antonie Lilienfeld had settled in the USA, in the Boston suburb of Winchester, Massachusetts and that was when her battle began with the art collecting officials of the Third Reich, including Adolf Hitler's own agents, to be reunited with her paintings. The story of the Lilienfeld's demonstrates the many ways in which the Nazi regime sought to strip emigrants of their belongings, and in particular desirable works of art.

Literature
Reed, Victoria, 'Frans Hals, Hitler, and the Lilienfeld Collection: A Case Study of Expropriation in Austria', published in the Journal of the History of Collections 30(3):pp 471-486 (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, November 2018)